I am shocked they allowed them in school tbh. They were not allowed at school for millennials. Granted phones were new but all the flip phones and such were not allowed at schools.
They where in NL though, you just wheren't allowed to have them in class.
But a lot of people here cycle to school and sometimes though roads that aren't that safe so in that case it was handy to have a mobile phone to call with.
Born on Europe on 1985. We never had a ban on phones (later "feature phones"). We couldn't use them in class, same as the game boy, a comic or a Walkman.
Now schools force Chromebooks/ewaste with laughable restrictions.
I'm absolutely in favor of schools disallowing use of phones in class, but I'm against them being banned. If kids want to use them between classes, that's fine, as long as they don't use them in class.
I was super shocked when I saw kids using their phones and laptops in class. When I was in school, the moment your phone went off it was confiscated and you had to pay to get it back at the end of the day. It created this culture amongst the kids that no matter who you were, if your phone went off, people will have coughing fits and make noise to cover it up. Super funny every time it happened too.
The "study" is that they asked teachers, "Hey, how's it been going?" and the teachers answered, "I feel like my students are paying attention more now."
You shouldn't poll anyone, instead look at test results. If there is better focus, it'll improve learning outcomes like test scores, graduation rates, and reduces instances of cheating. IMO, if we poll anyone, it should be parents about how much assistance they give their kids (i.e. are they filling in the gaps in their education less?).
It's nice that teachers think kids are paying more attention, but that only matters if kids are learning more.
At my middle school, we also banned smartphones throughout the whole building. You were meant to either leave yours at home or put it in your locker when you got there. It's a lot easier to chat with people during the breaks when they're not face-down in their phone screen.
They were always collected when not in use. We don't get personal devices, we either go to the computer room, where every screen can be seen by the teacher at once a la panopticon, or we get a trolley full of laptops that we hand in at the end of the lesson. You can also BYOD that isn't a smartphone, so long as you don't use it during lesson time when the teacher doesn't permit it.
At my school, they only cared if you used it, and you'd be forced to put it away if caught. A lot of my friends had phones, but they weren't allowed to use them in class, and it was treated like any other gadget like a gameboy.
I don't believe in bans (kids can use them between classes), but I also believe kids shouldn't use any devices in class.