In the last several months, district and state-level leaders have taken a unified approach to addressing the student behavioral issue impacting public schools. However, it’s a solution one edtech expert believes won’t get to the root of the issue.
Smartphone bans have ramped up in popularity as school systems like New York Public Schools, the nation’s largest district, announced it would be considering smartphone restrictions during the school day. The announcement came not long after U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published an op-ed in The New York Times advocating for warning labels on social media platforms to better protect youth from harmful effects on mental health.
Bill Salak, chief technology and chief operating officer at Brainly, a homework help and test prep platform, says it’s a model that no school should follow.
“I don’t think anybody on either side of this issue, whether they agree with me or they’re for smartphone bans, I don’t think they have bad intentions,” he explains. “I think we’re aligned on the ultimate goal, which is to keep kids safe and make sure they have positive mental health and that they’re not distracted in school and their educational experience is effective.”
Overall, Salak doesn’t believe that banning smartphones in schools is an effective way to minimize distractions and reduce behavioral issues. “Cell phones are a part of our daily lives as adults,” he says. “They’re productivity tools that we as adults use in our professional and personal lives.”
“By saying that school is somehow different and we should ignore these tools and not lean into them, I think we’re setting our kids up to be under-informed, under-prepared.”
Tune into this episode of the “Talking Out of School” podcast to learn why Salak believes schools should instead tap into the potential smartphones create for teaching digital literacy.
You can listen to this episode on Podbean, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or down below:
