The Province of Alberta’s ban on personally owned devices in the classroom is nearing three months, and the Grande Prairie Public School Division is suggesting students are beginning to feel the impact.
According to GPPSD Superintendent Sandy McDonald, the implementation of the new policy is going “quite well,” and has shown significant progress, especially among younger students.
“Division administration and the board of trustees have collected information from school administration, teachers, parents, and students,” he says. “Students in K-8 schools have adapted very well, and in most cases, use of personal mobile phones was already restricted prior to this school year.”
The Superintendent cites the Board of Trustees Student Advisory Committee, representing students from grades seven to twelve, and says the policy works “very well” up to grade eight.
Despite elementary and junior high students adapting to the new rules, McDonald suggests older students feel the greatest impact at school.
“Older students, who have spent more time in school with limited restrictions on personal phone use, have felt the largest impact,” he says. “Before this year, high school students used their phones during the school day as distractions and/or to support their learning.”
“While the loss of phones as a disruption to learning is welcomed, and noticeably decreased, students and teachers are adjusting to the loss of their phone as a tool to support learning.”
McDonald maintains that his division works to support students to better adapt to the new policy.
When it comes to whether the new policy has resulted in any substantial changes in a student’s performance, McDonald says the decrease in distractions in a learning environment has been “noticeable,” even since the beginning of the year.
“The policy, being a province-wide rule, appears to have been successful to this point,” he says. “Conversations and student activity during breaks during the school day in all grades are visibly more positive and inappropriate behaviour through social media is decreased,” he says.
It’s not just the students who have reported positive changes at school either, teachers and other faculty also indicate they have seen significant improvements in their students academic and social lives.
“Staff and students have both identified seeing positive changes since implementation of the policy,” he says.
Overall, the Superintendent says he is happy with the new policies; however, he maintains school administrators will continue to work with the division to look for opportunities to improve access to appropriate technology to support learning at school.
