It’s unanimous! Our favorite means to navigate phone usage with groups of students (& adults) is to have all individuals stack their phone in a designated corner (or box, or basket etc.) when they enter the learning space. It sends a signal that our time together is valuable enough that we need to be distraction free. Phones are fantastic tools that can really extend and transform teaching and learning, but we cannot escape that they are VERY GOOD AT DISTRACTING US.

Having your group stick to the norm of stacking their phones in a tower creates the context to have a bunch of teachable moments. For example:

• phone dings= teachable moment about how audible alerts divert our attention (*see Foroughi, Werner, Hatcher, Lopez, Zafar & Boehm-Davis, 2014 for more)
• phone vibrates= teachable moment about how even a phone on silent can be distracting (*see Turkle’s 2015 piece in the NYTimes for more)
• students need to capture their learning= teachable moment about when and why phones should be used in class