The Decibel - How schools are dealing with the problem of phones in class

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

Social media use among students is a big concern for schools across Canada. Ontario school boards and educators are taking matters into their own hands by suing social media companies like Meta, Snap and ByteDance for allegedly harming kids and disrupting education. And educators have had to devise creative methods to keep students engaged.The Globe’s education reporter, Caroline Alphonso, explains how cell phones and social media use are affecting student learning, the details of the lawsuits, and what schools are doing to refocus student attention in classrooms.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail]

Last year, yeah, I wasn't very attentive. Didn't do much work in the classroom. Just kind of sat on social media or talked to the people around me. So, yeah, classroom engagement was like zero. And so where was the phone? In my hand. Not even in my pocket. Like, it was just in my hand.

Really? While you were in class? Yeah. Yeah, it was that. The Globe's education reporter, Caroline Alfonso, has been talking to students about cell phones in class. Like Adam, who's in grade 11. And how often would you look down on it, would you say? Out of the 75 minutes, I'd say 55 to 60. Wow, okay. Yeah, yeah. So you really were not, you know, paying'd say 55 to 60. Wow. Okay.

Yeah. So you really were not, you know, paying attention? No, not at all. Educators in Canada are trying to change the way students use cell phones at school, but it's an uphill battle. Earlier this year, four school boards in Ontario launched lawsuits against the major social media companies for allegedly harming students and disrupting learning. This week, several more boards filed their own suits. Today, Caroline joins us to explain how social media and cell phones are affecting Canadian classrooms and what's being done to try to change it.

I'm Maina Karaman-Wilms, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. Caroline, thanks for joining me again. Thank you for having me, Mainika. So we heard from one of the students that you spoke with off the top. He said he was often on his phone for more than half of a 75-minute class, which seems like a lot, right? How common are stories like that? Stories like Adam's are quite common right across the school system in Canada, where more kids, I think, now have cell phones and they're bringing them to school.

There was a survey done in 2021, I believe, by the Center for Addiction and Mental Health. And they surveyed about just over 2,000 Ontario students. And what they found was that 91% of students in grades 7 to 12, so we're talking about middle school and high school, they use social media daily. So that's 91%. And they found about a third of these kids spend five or more hours on social media daily.

Wow, five hours. Yeah. And what they also found is that with these increased use of social media, almost a third of the students reported that they had been cyber bullied at least once over the past year as a result of social media. And that is, you know, right now an increasing concern for not only policymakers, but for educators. And so what have you heard from educators? Like, what does that mean for teachers? Teachers are finding it more and more challenging in the classroom when kids are bringing their

phones into it. Because what's happening is that kids are more likely than not on social media platforms, which means they are distracted. They receive notifications on their phone. So they're constantly looking at it like Adam was throughout the classroom period. And they're less focused on the lesson. They're less focused on the classroom discussion. They're retaining less information because they're more distracted, which means that, you know, academically, they're not achieving as well. Do we know how it's impacting academic performance at all?

It's hard to really quantify that. What we're seeing where I am in Ontario, what we're seeing is that test scores, so Ontario runs EQAO, which is a standardized test for grade threes and sixes and nines. And what we're seeing is that test scores for literacy, so reading and writing, have remained relatively flat over the past few years. But we're seeing math scores really dip. So half of grade six students in Ontario meet the benchmarks, meet the standard for tests. And could that be attributed to the increased use of smartphones? Is that the distraction? It's hard to sort of link the two.

But, you know, teachers are saying that kids are more distracted in class. They're paying less attention. This would filter down into how they perform academically. I'm wondering about the pandemic too, right? Because these are kids who've obviously been through school during the pandemic where they were in virtual classrooms for months. Do we know what kind of effect that might have had on just, you know, how much they were using their phones during that time? That's a really interesting question because, like you said, during the pandemic, kids were on,

whether it's phones or devices, all the time. Online learning was so prevalent during this period of time. And what we're seeing as a result of that, the trickle-down effect from the pandemic, is that more kids are using devices just because they were exposed to it a lot more. So what we're seeing, or what I'm hearing from teachers, from educators, from administrators, is that since the pandemic, they have seen an increase in the use of cell phones and other devices. So we've talked a little bit about some of the issues at hand here, Caroline. Now, these school boards are suing the big social media companies. We saw a first round of this actually happen in the spring, when four Ontario school boards did the same thing.

But who was involved in these new lawsuits? So like you mentioned, in March, it was some of the largest boards in the country, including the Toronto District School Board. This week, we heard about other school boards joining this fight. And these boards include the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, the Ottawa Catholic School Board, the York Catholic School Board, the Trillium Lakelands District School Board. So that's a school board in the Muskoka region, the Kawarthas, the District School Board of Niagara and two private schools. One is an all girls school in Mississauga and one is a Jewish day school in Toronto. So they have also joined and filed separate but similar lawsuits against the big social media companies. So these are all in Ontario, then, all of these boards? All the boards right now, at this point in time, are in Ontario. And who, you said, we talked about the social media companies, but let's, I guess, be specific here.

Who are they suing? They're specifically suing Meta, which is responsible for Facebook and Instagram, Snap, which is responsible for Snapchat, and ByteDance, which is responsible for TikTok. And how significant is it? I guess I'm thinking about, so we had kind of a first round of Ontario schools earlier, and then we have this other round. How significant is it that now we have a whole number of other school boards joining in this

effort to sue the big social media companies? It's significant because, like I said earlier, teachers are finding this to be a distraction in the classroom. It's hampering learning. They're alleging it's affecting brain development of kids. They're alleging that, you know, it's a huge distraction. Kids are not focused. It's leading to cyberbullying. It's an important milestone, I think, in the school system, in the public education system, or the education system in general, because what they're saying is that these companies have designed products that are unsafe and addictive in nature. And what it's doing is it's harming the mental health of students, but it's also disrupting what is happening in the classroom. It's disrupting learning. And as a

result, these school boards and these schools, these two private schools have had to put ample resources into helping students. Of course, there's money involved and the lawsuits are asking for billions of dollars that the school boards say would be put into resources to help students, especially those who are finding addictions in social media. But I think it also signals that something needs to change in these platforms to protect young people. And that's what they're hoping comes out of this. The companies that are part of this lawsuit responded that they do have or they are working on safety measures. Meta, for example, said that they've invested in technology that finds and removes content related to suicide, self-injury, and eating disorders even before someone responds to them and tells them it's in place. So the companies are saying that they will defend their case.

They say that they have brought safety measures in place or they are working towards them. But the lawsuits allege that it's not enough. They say that kids can get around it and it needs to be enforced better. I'm curious, what are the rules in place right now around cell phone use in classrooms? I'm sure it varies from province to province, but what kind of policies do we see in Canada now? It's tricky because there's no consistency around it. And you see many classrooms and many schools kind of taking on initiatives on their own because they've seen it become such a challenge, such an issue. Ontario in particular, in 2019, they had a cell phone policy or have a cell phone policy in place,

which is that cell phones can only be used for educational purposes in the classroom. Or they assist special needs kids, for example. If they assist special needs kids, they can be used in the classroom. Or if kids need them for health and medical purposes. But there's been no consistency. Just recently and coming this fall, the Ontario government announced that they're enforcing new rules. They're putting new rules for cell phones. They're cracking down on cell phones. Among the new rules is that grade six students,

grade six students and lower, the cell phones have to be off and they have to be silent. Teachers don't want to see them and they shouldn't see them. But for grade sevens and twelves, they can access the cell phones between classes or during lunch. And so this will be in place in the fall, as you said. This should be in place in the fall. And what the government has said is that if students don't comply with these new rules, they could face penalties. And one of those penalties is they could be suspended, which is pretty, it's a pretty huge penalty for cell phone use. They've also said that school boards should restrict access to social media on the devices used in schools, but also on their

Wi-Fi networks. Interesting. And across the country, we're seeing governments try to tackle this issue in many ways. So Quebec right now restricts phone use, but they leave it up to districts on how to do that. British Columbia is mulling something to be in place in the fall as well. And in Alberta, they have surveyed families looking for feedback on cell phone use in schools. And the minister sent me a statement just this week saying that he's looking at it and he's considering what steps need to be taken to limit cell phone use in schools. Okay. So like you were saying, Caroline, it seems like it is a bit of a patchwork across

the country because, of course, education is done on a provincial level. But I guess I'm wondering about enforcement because this was an issue that we've talked about before. How do you actually make sure that cell phones are kind of kept out of classroom and that these rules that are in place are actually enforced? That is such a tricky issue. It's such a challenging issue at the moment because what I'm hearing from educators is these are expensive devices and they don't want to be responsible if something were to happen to them. But on the other hand, they're finding that kids are more and more distracted by it,

less focused in the classroom. So it's a tricky balance right now on how to limit their use and how to not damage what comes from home. And also there are some parents that really want to keep in touch with their kids throughout the school day. So I think school boards are and schools are in a bit of a bind on how to enforce these measures. We'll be right back. Carolina, I know that you spoke with one teacher who actually took matters into her own hands. What was what was she noticing in her classroom? Vanessa Yoon is a teacher, a business teacher at York Most Collegiate

Institute in Toronto. And she noticed, especially after the pandemic in her classes, that kids were using their cell phones constantly. After COVID, I have noticed that a lot of students' cell phone usage was getting worse. And then I had very authentic conversation with my students in class, and they all agree that cell phone is not really helping them to learn better. Of course, a lot of students, they were watching TikTok, and they were watching YouTube videos. And so instead of watching me, instead of watching me. And she had a hard time sort of, you know, bringing them back into the lesson. So she thought about it over the summer, and this fall she created a pledge.

And in this pledge, it was a really short but pointed letter outlining her concerns around cell phone use. She said they were a distraction, the students were retaining less information, which affected their academic performance, and they were missing out on critical classroom discussions. So she asked parents and guardians to sign the pledge that would basically allow students or force students to keep their

cell phones in their backpacks and on silent mode throughout her 75-minute class. And if they brought it out, she would have the right to just take it from them for that period and keep it sort of in a safe place in that classroom. Okay. And every single one of the parents signed on. Really? Hmm. And what kind of impact then did that have in her classroom? So she's got parents signed on to this letter.

Students know that this is the policy. What happened? Vanessa told me that it took a couple of weeks to bring the kids on board. They are so used to having their cell phones on their desk, even if it's face down. So it took a couple of weeks to sort of remind them that this pledge was in place and that she had the right to remove their cell phones if they were distracted. But she described such a huge change as a result of it. She said kids are just participating more in the discussion. They are more focused in class. I've had lots of group activities. And in my classroom,

I've noticed that students were more engaged. And then, you know, I have lots of class discussion. And like, they were more engaged, they were able to participate more because they do pay attention in class and then they don't have their cell phones. So like and also another great thing that I've noticed is like they make friends in the classroom. She has noticed it's just been a complete changeover. And what's interesting is that other teachers at the school have also adopted a similar pledge. They have brought it on board and they too have seen a huge change. Okay, so this is something that's actually catching on at your school, it sounds like. Exactly.

And what did students say about this policy? Like, how did they actually feel about it? Well, we heard from Adam earlier, who was constantly distracted from his cell phone. And, you know, when it first started, Adam was very unsure about this. He didn't know how he would be able to manage without having his cell phone in his hand. Well, at first, I think, not just me speaking for a lot of people, it was a very, it was a new approach, because especially after like virtual learning, we're very used to, yeah, like constantly being like our phone was like a part of us. It's like it was like our other arm.

So kind of having now like not even like really an option to be on it. Yeah, at first it was it was a little shocking, but. He has it in the side pocket of his backpack. It's on silent, so he doesn't look at it. And he was actually quite impressed with himself. The fact that he could go 75 minutes without turning to his phone. He said he's seen his marks go up in class, which is tremendous. I mean, already we're seeing some impact from it. From last year, my average has gone up by around 38 percent. And he's enjoying

his class. He's enjoying the discussions. One of the other students that I spoke with was Iona. She's a grade 12 student at York Mills Collegiate. And she talked about how she had her phone on her desk, turned over, but constantly distracted by the number of notifications that came in. But you couldn't hear anything? No, but I could hear it buzzing. Okay. Kind of, I guess, yeah.

How many times would it buzz over a 75-minute classroom period? Probably like at least 10. At least, wow, okay. And she's saying that now she participates more in discussions. She has less homework to do because she's getting her work done in class more quickly. I've noticed that I'm participating a lot more for sure because I'm engaged in the topics that we're learning about, especially with classroom discussions. I've also noticed that it's helped me make a lot more friends

because this way, you know, I'm not just glued to my phone every time there's maybe an awkward or hard conversation. I'm encouraged to speak more, share my opinion, and learn from others. So they both noticed a complete change in their work ethic in class. Yeah. And I imagine if you've got notifications going off, I mean, anyone would find that distracting. People around you would find that distracting as well. So that must be a big change. Completely. I mean, you know, the number of notifications that kids receive on their phones is huge. I mean, one of the things that a recent UNESCO report found is that students take up to

20 minutes to refocus after they are distracted by their cell phone. So can you imagine the number of notifications that are coming in and then having a period of time, almost half an hour, to refocus on the classroom discussion? And out of a 75-minute class, then you're missing a lot of material. You are missing a ton of material. So it sounds like this was quite successful in Vanessa Yoon's classroom here, Caroline, and other teachers at her school are adopting it now. But what does it say that, you know, this has to come down to the teacher level, that she herself actually has to do something to change this in her classroom? It says that teachers are grappling with a huge issue that they have to seek out ways to find to stop it from happening. I think the hope is that what the Ontario government has in place in Vanessa Yoon's

province is that will mitigate some of what classroom teachers are seeing. They're hoping by these enforcement measures, now we have enforcement measures, that they won't have to take matters into their own hands. Many teachers, for example, have storage boxes in their classrooms where kids drop their cell phones at the beginning of class and collect them at the end. So perhaps things like that would not necessarily need to happen if there are provincial enforcement measures in place. You mentioned that a key part of this pledge in Vanessa Yoon's class is that she got the parents on board. So I'm wondering, what is the parents' role in all of this? Do they have a part in kind of helping address this issue of cell phones in classrooms? I think in order for something like this to work, you really need the parents on board. You really need families to say, yes, please take away the cell phone if it's proving to be a distraction in the classroom. Because otherwise, there are no checks and balances. You know, many parents that I've spoken with are concerned about the use of cell phones in class. They are concerned about social

media platforms and what it's doing to kids, whether it's cyberbullying, whether it's body image issues, all sorts of issues that are being raised right now, sleep disorders, that sort of thing. So I think bringing the parents on board, it's not only about enforcement, but it's also about parents knowing what the enforcement measures are that will be necessary. And so Vanessa Yoon was quite smart in doing that. She wanted to make sure that it's not kids that are signing the pledge. It's that families are signing the pledge so that they know what's happening inning phones. And there's obviously, it seems like there's a need for that. But it seems like there's also maybe something

bigger to think about, about, yes, digital literacy and what we do online. I think that should be incorporated into the curriculum. I think kids need to understand sort of their behavior online. I don't think they do right now. There are more calls for digital literacy. I know there are schools that bring in people to speak to kids about their behavior online. One of the private schools in this round of lawsuits had spoken to me about how they had a speaker come in to talk to kids about online behavior. You know, they had another speaker who came in who talked about what do apps do and where are the safeguards in place? I think there is an important conversation to be had about how curriculum needs to incorporate some of this, especially because kids are using these phones. They're using these platforms more so than ever before.

We need to educate kids on what happens online. So then what have you heard from experts? Like, are restrictions the best way to do this? Or I guess are restrictions a part of the puzzle then and fits into a broader conversation? I think limiting use in the classroom is part of a broader conversation because I don't think that alone solves the issue. Because kids will find a way. Kids always find a way. But I think having the piece where we're teaching kids as well, like teaching kids why those constant notifications are probably not a great idea all the time, teaching kids about cyberbullying and what is right and what is wrong. I think that it goes hand in hand with the enforcement measures. I think you can't do one without the other.

Just very lastly, Caroline, I'm just curious, the students that you spoke to in Ms. Yoon's class, did their overall habits on their cell phones change at all? Like, I wonder if this class had a broader effect on them? Manika, I don't think it would surprise you to hear that as soon as the bell rang and the class ended, they all took their cell phones out of their backpack to see what they had missed. And how quickly do you reach for it after the bell or when the class ends? Okay, honestly, right away. Right away. Okay. Of course, yeah.

But, you know, don't we do the same when we get out of a meeting, right? All the time. Caroline, thank you so much for being here today. Thanks for having me. That's it for today. I'm Maina Karaman-Wilms. Our intern is Aja Sauter. Our producers are Madeline White,

Cheryl Sutherland, and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Cheung is our senior producer, and Matt Frainer is our managing editor. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.