Mobile phone ban: “Free use of cell phones is a great danger”

Woman HorbachIn Hesse, a mobile phone ban should apply from the coming school year. How did you react to this message as a teacher?
I personally were very happy. My research and my personal experiences at school show that a mobile phone ban has great added value for the pupils, both from a learning psychological and from a social perspective. I see a great danger in the free use of cell phones and other electronic devices.

In your opinion, how has everyday school life changed in recent years through digital end devices?
Very negative. I find that the students’ ability to concentrate has decreased significantly. In this context, the willingness to engage in exhausting tasks has also decreased.

And should that Smartphones be to blame?
Yes, when using social media you get a good feeling with little effort. When students look at TikK videos, the dopamine level rises very quickly without having to do a lot for it. The problem is that this contradicts what happens at school and how learning works.

To what extent?
Learning is exhausting and requires that you get to a point where you make a mistake that you think you think, I have not yet understood, now I have to start again. Dopamine is also released when learning, but only after about ten minutes. Only then does the motivation come. Due to the increasing cell phone use, I find that many students no longer reach this point, but give up beforehand, especially when the smartphone is in their pockets. They then flee from the task, go to the toilet and distract themselves with their cell phones. This gives you an important learning moment.

What are the consequences of the devices for schooling together?
In addition to learning, the school is also a place of character formation, where students learn how to fight with others, how to get along, how to play again. A lot is lost due to the smartphone.

Do you have an example?
At the beginning of the school year, I gave my English class the task of writing down ten things that they want to tell their classmates. The first step of the students who work in my class with private tablets was not about thinking. You asked Chatgpt immediately. This is understandable because it is the easiest way to solve the task, but the consequence is that you say something that does not actually correspond to your personal opinion.

In Hesse There should be different regulations depending on the age of the students. Do you find differences in the usage behavior of the different age groups?
Not really. The very small ones use it less, but when I take the schoolyard during the break, most students play on their cell phones or daddling on social media. The play equipment is hardly used, and the students sit around in the cafeteria or in the cafeteria, and everyone looks at their screen. Social interaction no longer takes place properly.

How is the handling of digital devices at your school regulated?
We still have no regulation at all, and that is – I know that – the worst case. There are many schools that have already established systems and regulations. We don’t have any yet.

At most schools, rules for mobile phone use are anchored in the school regulations. Then why is a legal regulation still needed?
At my school we have been discussing how we want to deal with the use of smartphones and whether we want to ban it. I think if you go uniformly, as in Hesse, you take a lot of pressure from the schools. Therefore I am for clear announcements and for a uniform approach.

How do you personally deal with it in class?
In my ninth grade I introduced the rule that you have to put your cell phones on the desk when you come into the room. I can do that, but that is very exhausting for me as a teacher. Of course, the students are surprised why they have to do this with me and not with others.

The technologies also have many advantages. Shouldn’t you use them better and integrate them into class in a profitable way?
Full. But the problem is, especially when the students use private end devices, I have no insight as a teacher what they do on their tablet. I know that there are schools that have tablets, where the teacher can see what happens on the individual screens or she can block the internet for a certain time. But if I have no access to what is happening, I am lost as a teacher. Then in principle I have no way of supporting my students in such a way that they can learn really well. And you have to be aware of that.

So you mean seriously that we should banish all digital devices from school and return to paper and pencil?
No. I think a ban is generally good, but there should still be a certain scope for teachers to use the technical devices sensibly. For example for media education or certain projects. AI programs can be used very well for learning. But it takes awareness of whether these technologies really make sense for learning or whether there have to be areas where we have to protect students.

How do the students react to bans that they pronounce themselves as a teacher?
When we were on a school trip, my colleagues and I decided to impose a cell phone ban. We collected the devices and the students had an hour of cell phones every day where they could make calls home. The students were even grateful for this. They had felt liberated, they said later. Much more had been communicated. On the way back, well, you sat on your cell phone again.

Whether in the subway, at the bus stop or even in the Bundestag: even adults have usually lowered their heads and stare on their cell phones. Isn’t the real problem that we have false to the children?
Absolutely, it is omnipresent. And honestly: I’m also trying to reduce my cell phone time because I realize that I don’t well good in many ways. It is also difficult for me to concentrate on a task and not let me distract me. Now you have to imagine how a 13-year-old is doing who has his smartphone in front of him, where Snapchat messages are constantly popping up, and who is also supposed to learn French vocabulary. How is that supposed to work if we adults have difficulties with it?

Can a ban also solve the problem in the long term?
I think we are at a pioneering point where there is a strong rethink in dealing with the smartphone. We already see this trend in other countries. And I think we are now starting to understand what influence these devices can have on children and adolescents. I can imagine that this is now the beginning of a development that will go further towards bans.