Our guest speaker, Jesse Miller, noted an interesting strategy to navigate cellphone use in the classroom. He recommends adding “tech breaks” throughout the day to reward students when they refrain from using their phones during class time. Because this is a collective reward as opposed to an individual reward, students work as a group and hold each other accountable. The “tech break” strategy acts as a great classroom management tool for students who may be more likely to listen to and fear disappointing their peers. Reward systems are a great tool short term, however, there are potential issues that may arise such as favourtism and lack of motivation for students with academic or behavioural challenges. When rewards are individualized, it is possible that some students may be rewarded on a daily basis, while others might only be rewarded once a week. Group rewards might help to prevent favourtism in this context. When phones are taken away, the instructor is working against the students, which often leads to conflict, however, when phones are integrated into a reward system, the instructor is working with their students to find a solution together.
Moreover, while doing some research, I discovered the Lock&Stock app which is a game-based app that incentivizes students to stay off their phones during class time. I’ll leave a link to a Tech Talk video about the app down below:
Finally, during our discussion regarding digital footprints, I realized how aware you need to be about the posts you create. Jesse Miller recalled a story about a high school student whose class photo was made into a meme and was shared amongst thousands of people when it went viral. These memes that may appear funny in the moment have real consequences on the lives of those directly impacted. For instance, the abovementioned high school student was forced to complete his schooling from home to avoid bullying at school.
