After reaching out to the Ramapo student body, the majority of students felt the same and the overwhelmingly similar responses were surprising. Many individuals who read last month’s article regarding phone caddies shared their opinions. They ultimately described phone caddies as a tool meant to be beneficial, but sometimes necessary in the classroom. Forty-five students responded to the data form however, all responses remained anonymous to allow for individuals to reflect their thoughts honestly. Below are all the statistics and data collected using the google form previously posted!
Q.) Do you think phone caddies in classrooms are beneficial to your learning?
Q.) Is your phone a distraction when you are learning or trying to study, especially in a school environment?
Q.) Do you think that putting your phone in a phone caddy should be mandatory or optional?
Q.) On a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you think your phone distracts you?
It seems that in this day and age, phones have b
ecome a disturbance to learning and distracting to even adults who have the ability to productively prioritize work. Common Sense Media performed a similar assessment where they analyzed the smartphone data of 200 students. The study reveals, “Though school cell phone policies can vary significantly, 97% of 11- to 17-year-olds used their phones during the school day” (k12dive.com). The normalized establishment of phone caddies in not only Ramapo could significantly decrease this percentage and provide students with distraction-free learning opportunities. The same study states, “The amount of daily in-school screen time ranged from less than a minute to 6 1/2 hours with a median time of 43 minutes” (k12dive.com). 6 hours of one’s day is an exorbitant amount of time that could be productively spent elsewhere. Limiting the ability for students to access phones during the school day could definitely increase efficiency in the classroom.
Taking a break from your phone to breathe fresh air or communicate in person with others is a great way to disconnect and give your brain and eyes a break from the constant blue light of our phones. Thank you to all those who responded and shared their honest opinions. If you haven’t done so already, read the first article concerning phone caddies for more information!
