A NYC schools cellphone ban? How new literacies are relevant to us
These days, if you’re talking about New York City public schools, then rumblings of a potential cellphone ban will inevitably “enter the chat.” While New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks ultimately decided against moving forward with a ban for the current school year, in an interview with CBS News, he acknowledges that the issue is “complicated” (Kramer, 2019) yet still, he continues to echo his stance that phones are a “real distraction.” Banks also tells CBS that he has yet to hear "anybody make the case for why cellphones have a benefit in our classrooms."
But the International Literacy Association (ILA, 2018) did make a case for cellphones in classrooms. They cited an example of an ELA class where once-quiet students emerged as “literacy leaders and experts within the classroom community” (p. 4) when cellphones were allowed (and even integrated) within instruction. In the Digital Age we live in, I think fashioning cellphones into this sort of “Boogeyman” would only send us backwards.
ILA (2018) explains that schools “invest heavily” (p. 2) in gadgets like iPads, Chromebooks and apps, but stop there when it comes to digital literacy. They provide these tools believing that they alone are enough, and that they are these kinds of “silver bullets” that magically make students digitally literate. But what it means to be digitally literate today is multifaceted—it’s not just the ability to open an email. Vanek (2019) enumerates a “multitude of proficiencies” (p. 2) that combine to form new literacies, including digital problem-solving, information literacy and media literacy.
So, how can we get our students to acquire the additional proficiencies Vanek (2019) tells us about? The ILA (2018) urges that schools endeavor to create authentic learning opportunities that integrate technology in a way that mirrors its use in real world workplaces. Just as an accountant uses their Outlook calendar to sync appointments and their email to communicate with clients, a student could use any of their devices to keep up with their schedule of sports practices or maintain a Google Sheets spreadsheet of assignment deadlines. The ILA contends that if we are to aptly prepare our students for “the broader world [students] will enter when they graduate” (p. 2), we create learning experiences that allow students to use digital tools in the same way professionals do and across “myriad devices, tools, and topics” (p. 3). And to do this, we can’t remove cellphones from the equation because as any working professional would tell you, a smartphone is certainly an integral player in the “myriad” of devices they use to solve problems on a daily basis.
The ILA (2018) helps us see the necessity of cellphones if we truly intend to replicate real world workplaces in our classrooms through authentic learning experiences. A classroom without cellphones no doubt misses out on those benefits, but we can’t ignore some of the other potential negative implications…
When our students don’t have equitable access to technology, we must consider what kind of message it sends them. ILA (2018) says we might be “teaching implicit lessons about the kind of work environments these students are expected to enter” (p. 5). Vanek (2019) cites a study that found that “middle skills jobs that require use of digital technologies pay more and provide a career pathway into middle- and high-skill jobs” (p. 3). When we don’t allow our students to become fluent in new literacies, we make them predestined for working-class jobs. And the ILA (2018) tells us it’s also a matter of social justice: “…rules that restrict student use of personal media devices during lunches and passing periods reinforce power structures that mimic cell phone policies primarily found in working-class jobs” (p. 5).
Banks (Kramer, 2024) told us he has yet to hear anyone make a case for the benefits of cellphones but that doesn't mean “the case” doesn’t exist. I think New York City of all places should be a leader in implementing new literacies within curricula and in instruction, and as the ILA (2018) put it, “digital literacies are a matter of social justice” (p. 5). If we want all students to have access to a future where they could be the engineers, computer scientists, or any professional equipped to solve the problems that will arise in the future, then we must see the relevance of new literacies today.
References
https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-improving-digital-practices-literacy-learning-justice.pdf
Kramer, M. (2024, September 15). NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks says federal investigation not impacting his job, "even a little bit”. CBS News.
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nyc-schools-chancellor-david-banks-investigation-interview/
https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/TSTMDigitalLiteracyBrief-508.pdf
Yeah, I think if we want students to adapt well to the technological world in which we live in we cannot suppress their ability to use their phones. A phone is essentially a computer in their hand, they can use it to do many things that, as you mention, apply to the real world. Instead of looking at phones as a distraction I think its more beneficial to look a little further and see how they can actually end up serving our youth. Everything has its positives and negatives, but if we don't even try to consider the positives to phone usage in school than we're choosing to be ignorant of its potential. Everything you stated in your blog post is everything I've been thinking and you couldn't have put it any better. Thank you for sharing your insights on this matter and I'm glad we could both agree on it.
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