Hiram College Library: Faculty and Staff Resources: Managing Devices in the Classroom

Presentation

Courtney Mauck, Ph.D. and Janet Vogel presented a workshop introducing device management in September 2022.

Managing Devices in the Classroom Presentation Slides

Key Takeaways

Students struggle to navigate the appropriate balance between “technology is addictive” and “technology is a valuable tool.” Most are aware that technology can be a distraction, but it is necessary to have a dialogue with students about how to use technology to add to their classroom experience.
Instructors need to adapt their own pedagogies to better address the needs of 21st century students. Green’s survey of students found that a lot of students want to be present, but the classroom might “fail to motivate them,” resulting in the students becoming disengaged. Policing technology does not necessarily fix this larger issue, especially since the underlife created by tech can be really important for students.
You set the tone. If you are on your device at the beginning of class, chances are, they will be, too. Try walking around and talking to them before class begins (once you have your tech set up, of course!) (Adapted from "How to Teach a Good First Day of Class.")
Even when students want to participate, they may be distracted by others who are not; their grades may suffer as a result. Educate students and encourage them to be "team players" in the classroom. (Explain the "why.")

Sample Technology Policies

A mobile device policy on the syllabus can help establish expectations for the productive use of technology in the classroom. The policies below offer a range of approaches to the integration of technology in the classroom. Please note that none of the policies suggest outright bans on the use of mobile devices because the use of technology may be an important accommodation to allow all students to participate fully.

Sample Technology Policies

Using Do Not Disturb & Screen Time Limiters

Students (and faculty!) may find Do Not Disturb to help them focus while in class. You can set Do Not Disturb for a specific time period or while you are in a certain location. You can even create a Do Not Disturb schedule to match your course schedule. Our Task Aid provides instructions:

Do Not Disturb Task Aid
Learn to automate Do Not Disturb and use other features to limit disruptions throughout your day.

Screen Time limiters can also help students (and you) reduce the amount of time spent on distracting apps like Instagram, Tik Tok, and SnapChat. If you set a time limit in an app on the iPad, a notification will pop up alerting you that you have reached your limit. While you can circumvent this, it is a good way to be mindful of how much time you are wasting in a given day.

To set your Screen Time limits:

Open the Settings app
Select "Screen Time."
Select options such as "App Limits," which allow you to set limits by app, or "Communication Limits" to limit Phone, FaceTime, Messages, and iCloud Contacts from communicating with you during your selected down time. (Emergency contacts can still get through.)

Try Flow!

Flow is a focus-based timer that allows you to select the duration of your focus and breaks.

Choose a task from your to-do list.
Start the timer (default is 25 minutes).
Focus on the task and commit to it. You are more likely to succeed if you make a promise to yourself or others.
Take a short break (default is 5 minutes) to stretch your legs, get a drink of water, relax.
Repeat 4 times.
Take a longer, restorative break (default is 30 minutes).

Set the timers to work best for you and the time you have available.

Flow Pomodoro and Productivity App
Flow is a minimalistic pomodoro based focus timer.

Learn More

Azad I. Ali (2013), “Etiquette, E-Etiquette and Cell Phone Use in the Classroom”
Initial efforts to deal with cell phone use in the classroom focused on banning their use all together. Subsequent surge in the use of cell phones made this proposal impractical and often impossible to enforce. Advances in the technology added more capabilities to cell phones and some experts are advocating using them in the classroom for educational purposes. The author’s opinion is that while disbanding the use of cell phone in the classroom is impractical; a better approach is to teach the students the etiquette of using cell phone in the classroom. This paper elaborates on the idea of teaching the etiquette of using cell phones in the classroom.
Michael J. Berry (2015), “Dial D for Distraction: The Making and Breaking of Cell Phone Policies in the College Classroom”
Cell phones are nearly ubiquitous in the college classroom. This study asks two primary questions regarding the making and breaking of in-class cell phone policies. In what manner are students using their phones and how can faculty members minimize the potential for phone-related distractions? To answer these questions we analyze original survey data from nearly 400 college students across multiple public and private universities to better understand the students' impulse to use their phones during class. Results from the survey demonstrate that more than 80% of students use their phone at least once per class and that students generally believe this to be an acceptable practice. These student data are supplemented with survey data from close to 100 college faculty to evaluate a range of policy options for dealing with this issue. From this analysis, it is clear that the policies most frequently implemented by instructors are typically perceived by students as the least effective.
The Bok Center for Teaching & Learning: Devices in the Classroom
A summary of research from Harvard's Bok Center for Teaching & Learning. Includes a list of practical suggestions for increasing focus and decreasing distraction in the classroom.
Bowman et al. (2010), “Can Students Really Multitask? An Experimental Study of Instant Messaging While Reading”
Students often “multitask” with electronic media while doing schoolwork. We examined the effects of one form of media often used in such multitasking, instant messaging (IM). We predicted that students who engaged in IMing while reading a typical academic psychology passage online would take longer to read the passage and would perform more poorly on a test of comprehension of the passage. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (IM before reading, IM during reading, or no IM). We found that students took significantly longer to read the passage when they IMed during reading (not including time taken to IM) than in other conditions. However, test performance did not differ by condition. Students who are managing busy lives may think they are accomplishing more by multitasking, but our findings suggest they will actually need more time to achieve the same level of performance on an academic task.
Jenae Cohn (2016), “‘Devilish Smartphones’ and the ‘Stone-Cold’ Internet: Implications of the Technology Addiction Trope in College Student Digital Literacy Narratives”
Responding to danah boyd's 2014 study, It's Complicated, this article uses evidence from a sampling of 75 digital literacy narratives, produced within first-year composition courses, to show that college students often describe their embodied and virtual social experiences in bifurcated terms. Through analyzing a sample of digital literacy narratives using a corpus tool (VoyantTools), I captured word frequency and collocations to conclude that a significant percentage of undergraduate students in my sample largely differentiate their virtual and embodied activities in spite of the fact that ample evidence suggests that students move fluidly between online and offline spaces for both their school and social lives (Gee, 2003, Vie, 2008, Buck, 2012). This article works through four case studies from this corpus to explore how the perceived differences between virtual and embodied interactions get described. Through the trope of digital “addiction,” virtual interactions become pathologized and problematically create a bifurcated perception that does not reflect what we know about how twenty-first century writers work (Hawisher & Selfe, 2000). To demonstrate to students the complexity of digital literacy practices, this article concludes with a call to encourage instructors to model the fluidity of virtual and embodied interactions to undergraduate writing students.“Smart phones are making my housemates and me become anti-social. We may be sociable in virtual social network, but virtual is virtual, and it's difficult to correlate with real life… Staring at my cell phone will estrange my friends from me. At the end, I just want to tell my dear friends, when spending time with people you care about, please put your smartphone away.”- Excerpt from “Grace's” student digital literacy narrative, “Stop Phubbing”
McKinley Green (2019), “Smartphones, Distraction Narratives, and Flexible Pedagogies: Students’ Mobile Technology Practices in Networked Writing Classrooms”
This article reports on how a group of students describe their use of smartphones in writing classrooms. Based on 143 survey responses and 10 interviews, this study found that students often described their smartphone use as a reflection of their classroom environment. When motivated in class, these students used mobile devices as conduits for participation, accessing course materials, learning more about discussion topics, or writing notes. But when instructors failed to make course content relatable, understandable, or engaging, the students turned to their smartphones as sources of distraction. These findings encourage composition instructors to view smartphone use as, in part, a reflection of teaching methods and the course environments, rather than universal indications of students’ distraction or disinterest. And while many researchers have advocated for new course designs or assignments that account for the proliferation of networked composing technologies in university students’ lives (e.g., Yancey, 2009; Clark, 2010; Dryer et al., 2014), these findings call for further research to address how students’ access to networked mobile devices may require composition instructors to shift teaching methods and models, rather than solely course content.
Anya Kamenetz (2018), "Laptops And Phones In The Classroom: Yea, Nay Or A Third Way?"
A range of perspectives about devices in the classroom, including suggestions for helping students focus.
Paul A. Kirschner & Pedro De Bruyckere (2017), “The myths of the digital native and the multitasker.”
Current discussions about educational policy and practice are often embedded in a mind-set that considers students who were born in an age of omnipresent digital media to be fundamentally different from previous generations of students. These students have been labelled digital natives and have been ascribed the ability to cognitively process multiple sources of information simultaneously (i.e., they can multitask). As a result of this thinking, they are seen by teachers, educational administrators, politicians/policy makers, and the media to require an educational approach radically different from that of previous generations. This article presents scientific evidence showing that there is no such thing as a digital native who is information-skilled simply because (s)he has never known a world that was not digital. It then proceeds to present evidence that one of the alleged abilities of students in this generation, the ability to multitask, does not exist and that designing education that assumes the presence of this ability hinders rather than helps learning. The article concludes by elaborating on possible implications of this for education/educational policy.
James M. Lang (2017-2019), "The Distracted Classroom"
A series of articles by James M. Lang about the distracted classroom and ways to cope. Much of the content was later adapted into his book (below).

Distracted: why students can't focus and what you can do about it by James M. Lang
Call Number: 370.154 Lan
ISBN: 9781541699809
Publication Date: 2020-10-20
Keeping students focused can be difficult in a world filled with distractions -- which is why a renowned educator created a scientific solution to one of every teacher's biggest problems. Why is it so hard to get students to pay attention? Conventional wisdom blames iPhones, insisting that access to technology has ruined students' ability to focus. The logical response is to ban electronics in class. But acclaimed educator James M. Lang argues that this solution obscures a deeper problem: how we teach is often at odds with how students learn. Classrooms are designed to force students into long periods of intense focus, but emerging science reveals that the brain is wired for distraction. We learn best when able to actively seek and synthesize new information. In Distracted, Lang rethinks the practice of teaching, revealing how educators can structure their classrooms less as distraction-free zones and more as environments where they can actively cultivate their students' attention. Brimming with ideas and grounded in new research, Distracted offers an innovative plan for the most important lesson of all: how to learn.

Doug Lederman (2020), "Dealing With Student Distraction"
In his book, James M. Lang argues that trying to end students' distraction is a losing proposition. Instead, instructors should focus on capturing students' attention -- that's a winnable strategy.
Doug Lemov (2022), "Take Away Their Cellphones"
Doug Lemov argues for eliminating devices in K-12 classrooms. However, his article also talks about the qualities that make a classroom less open to distraction.

Mobile Technologies and the Writing Classroom by Claire Lutkewitte (Editor)
Call Number: Request it via OhioLINK (click the link in the title)
ISBN: 9780814131961
Publication Date: 2016-09-30
The nature and tools of writing have changed. Today's students compose and read chunks of webtexts and short text messages while they are on the move. If compositionists wish to be pedagogically relevant, they need to think more carefully about how their students read and compose texts and where they do so. More and more young people are choosing to write a variety of texts in a variety of locations because technologies make it possible. As a result, educational scholars are developing new understandings of how to incorporate such technologies into the classroom. To that end, this book provides practical resources and assignments for writing instructors who are interested in a pedagogy that makes use of mobile technologies. Editor Claire Lutkewitte and her contributors explore both writing for and about mobile technologies and writing with mobile technologies. Coming at a time when instructors are pressured to be professionally innovative but are rarely provided ideal circumstances in which to do so, this book offers (1) a starting point for instructors who haven't yet used mobile technologies in the classroom, (2) fresh ideas to those who have and proof that they are not alone, and (3) a call of reassurance that we can do more with less.
Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi
Call Number: Request it via OhioLINK (click the link in the title)
ISBN: 9781250124951
Publication Date: 2017-09-05
"Bored and Brilliant shows the fascinating side of boredom. Manoush Zomorodi investigates cutting-edge research as well as compelling (and often funny) real-life examples to demonstrate that boredom is actually a crucial tool for making our lives happier, more productive, and more creative. What's more, the book is crammed with practical exercises for anyone who wants to reclaim the power of spacing out - deleting the Two Dots app, for instance, or having a photo-free day, or taking a 'fakecation'." --Gretchen Rubin, author of #1 New York Times BestsellerThe Happiness Project "Bored and Brilliant is full of easy steps to make each day more effective and every life more intentional. Manoush's mix of personal stories, neuroscience, and data will convince you that boredom is actually a gift." --Charles Duhigg, author ofThe Power of Habitand Smarter, Faster, Better It's time to move "doing nothing" to the top of your to-do list. In 2015 Manoush Zomorodi, creator of WNYC's popular podcast and radio showNote to Self, led tens of thousands of listeners through an experiment to help them unplug from their devices, get bored, jump-start their creativity, and change their lives. Bored and Brilliant builds on that experiment to show us how to rethink our gadget use to live better and smarter in this new digital ecosystem. Manoush explains the connection between boredom and original thinking, exploring how we can harness boredom's hidden benefits to become our most productive and creative selves without totally abandoning our gadgets in the process. Grounding the book in the neuroscience and cognitive psychology of "mind wandering" what our brains do when we're doing nothing at all--Manoush includes practical steps you can take to ease the nonstop busyness and enhance your ability to dream, wonder, and gain clarity in your work and life. The outcome is mind-blowing. Unplug and read on.

Bored and Brilliant Podcast Series
A Podcast that accompanies Zomorodi's book.

Background Information about Current Students

iGen: why today's super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy-- and completely unprepared for adulthood (and what that means for the rest of us) by Jean M. Twenge
Call Number: 305.2350973 Twe
ISBN: 9781501151989
Publication Date: 2017-08-22
A highly readable and entertaining first look at how today's members of iGen--the children, teens, and young adults born in the mid-1990s and later--are vastly different from their Millennial predecessors, and from any other generation, from the renowned psychologist and author of Generation Me. With generational divides wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today's rising generation of teens and young adults. Born in the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s and later, iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person--perhaps why they are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred social taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. iGen is also growing up more slowly than previous generations: eighteen-year-olds look and act like fifteen-year-olds used to. As this new group of young people grows into adulthood, we all need to understand them: Friends and family need to look out for them; businesses must figure out how to recruit them and sell to them; colleges and universities must know how to educate and guide them. And members of iGen also need to understand themselves as they communicate with their elders and explain their views to their older peers. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation--and the world.

Sodexo Student Lifestyle Survey (2022-2023)
Not wanting to be defined by the pandemic, yet grappling with how it will forever change them and their outlook on life, GenZ are experiencing drastic spikes in anxiety, loneliness, and other mental and physical health challenges. The report is broken down by four key areas to try and understand the root causes that are contributing to their overall well-being:
Resilience
Social Success
Financial Well-Being
Physical Health