Learn English with Honourable Judy Woodroof, Minister of Education, Vicky Leong, and Councillor Mike Boyce discuss the need to limit the use of cell phones and social media sites in our classrooms.
00:00:00.240by a couple of other individuals as well in particular mike boyce who will be speaking
00:00:06.640after i've concluded my remarks mike of course will introduce himself i'm sure but he's a
00:00:11.760developmental psychologist with the university of calgary mike really delighted to have you here
00:00:16.320thank you for being here and as well after mike will be joined by vicky leong a teacher with
00:00:23.200aurora secondary school in edmonton vicky thanks so much for being here as well and for offering
00:00:28.400your insights and perspectives it's really important that we're here today because as
00:00:34.240i'm sure we all know cell phones are an ever-present feature of our daily lives and
00:00:40.080alberta's classrooms are no exception cell phones as i'm sure we all know can be used as a research
00:00:47.600and learning tool to stay up to date on other activities practice schedules club activities
00:00:56.000way to be to be connected with family and stay connected with loved ones
00:01:02.400and and of course enrich our lives in a variety of different ways
00:01:07.200however they of course can also be a distraction and can limit a student from reaching their full
00:01:15.280potential and they can in some instances put the mental health of the young person at risk
00:01:24.560a 2023 study published in the journal of applied cognitive psychology found that students who were
00:01:31.120permitted to use cell phones reported a higher degree of distraction and achieved worse test
00:01:38.720performance than those who were not allowed to use cell phones in a classroom a 2017 study linked
00:01:46.240minors use of social media enabled in school by smartphones to depression and an increased risk
00:01:54.880of suicide a 2016 study showed that smartphone use in school correlates to reduce to reduced
00:02:05.200educational success and another study found that eighth graders who are heavy social media users
00:02:13.760increased their risk of depression by 27 percent the risks to student mental well-being and
00:02:22.640academic success are real and we must take steps now to combat these effects over the past few
00:02:31.120months i've had the opportunity to hear from parents teachers and other educational partners
00:02:38.000that we should open the door to reviewing the use of personal mobile devices and social media in
00:02:45.380schools. And I'm happy to follow through on that request today. I've spent the last few months
00:02:52.420connecting with those most closely impacted, students, parents, and teachers, and other
00:02:57.880partners, to discuss the realities of cell phones and other personal mobile devices in schools.
00:03:03.020this included a survey that saw more than 68 000 parents teachers and principals provide their
00:03:12.860input on this note i just want to take a moment to thank our school boards and other partners who
00:03:19.580circulated this survey so that we could capture an incredibly wide perspective of alberta's
00:03:26.460views at 68 000 responses i'm told it's the highest responded survey ever
00:03:33.020and clearly parents and teachers alike have some clear views on this topic the survey results were
00:03:41.660clear that the use of cell phones is of significant concern and that additional measures should be
00:03:49.580taken to limit cell phone use in our classrooms and so today i am announcing that's effective
00:03:57.900fall the for the fall 2024 25 school year starting this uh september and august in some cases
00:04:05.660students will no longer be permitted to use personal mobile devices during class time and
00:04:12.860i'm further announcing that access to social media sites in schools will be restricted
00:04:19.740I am confident that these restrictions will reduce restrictions, maximize learning time, support student mental health, and reduce opportunities for cyberbullying.
00:04:35.140The new rules will be in place, as I mentioned, for the 24-25 school year at the beginning of the next school year, which occurs late August to early September.
00:04:45.480students again will no longer be able to use personal mobile devices during class time or
00:04:51.080to access social media sites personal mobile devices include cell phones smartphones smart
00:04:59.480watches headphones and other personal electronic devices there will be a few situations when
00:05:07.240students can use a phone during class time if needed for medical or health reasons if needed
00:05:14.760to support special learning needs or if directed by a teacher or any other reason as determined
00:05:22.920by a principal on a case-by-case basis these rules will apply to all public separate francophone
00:05:31.000public charter and independent school authority these rules present minimum standards and
00:05:39.320a board has the autonomy and flexibility to implement additional restrictions if they so
00:05:45.560choose during class time all personal devices must be turned off and be stored out of sight
00:05:54.760this could be a backpack a locker or any other area as determined by an individual school board
00:06:03.720school boards will be given flexibility to decide what enforcement should look like
00:06:09.400at their respective schools and what the consequences for non-compliance will be
00:06:15.080however school boards will be required to notify parents and guardians if their child violates
00:06:21.320the new rules individual school boards will also have the flexibility to decide
00:06:27.080how exceptions should be managed that being said again all school boards must allow exceptions for
00:06:34.680students using mobile devices for health or medical reasons or to support special learning needs
00:06:41.800as i mentioned before we also recognize that personal mobile devices can be an important
00:06:47.640research and learning tool that is why personal mobile devices will also be permitted for
00:06:53.720educational or other purposes as determined by a principal or equivalent on a case-by-case basis
00:07:01.240i'm confident that together these restrictions will reduce distractions maximize learning time
00:07:07.880support student mental health and reduce opportunities for cyber bullying as the
00:07:14.440current school year draws to a close i know that many parents and students will have questions
00:07:19.640about what these restrictions will look like at their local school so again to reiterate at the
00:07:25.320beginning of the upcoming school year all personal mobile devices will not be permitted during
00:07:32.280instructional time my department will also be working closely with school authorities over the
00:07:37.400next few days weeks and months to support them with implementation parents and guards should
00:07:43.480stay tuned to their local school authority over the coming months for more details regarding
00:07:48.200enforcement and compliance rules thank you again for joining me it's now my privilege and pleasure
00:07:54.920to pass things to mike boyce again a developmental psychologist with the university of calgary
00:08:00.120for his perspective thank you thank you minister good afternoon as mentioned i'm a developmental
00:08:10.680psychologist and over the last 40 years and then some i've taught and done research on the
00:08:17.080development of teens and young adults and i've examined the preparations that our students make
00:08:23.160and the paths that they choose as they transition out of high school and i've looked at what we as
00:08:28.680teachers and what educators in general can do to help them manage that transition most effectively
00:08:35.320Now, I'm old enough to remember a lot of things, but I'm old enough to remember that we used to help our students multitask as part of our research and teaching agendas.
00:08:50.520We're still working on figuring out the full impacts of social media use on our students, but we're very clear, the research is very clear,
00:08:57.620That smartphones in the classroom negatively impact students' abilities to focus and sustain their attention on their learning, but also on important developmental things like critical thinking, problem solving, planning skills, and on the building of the kinds of self-efficacy that they need to manage their engagement with social media, but also their engagement with their lives as they move on out of our school systems.
00:09:23.720We also know that the distractions that are built into smartphones when available in education
00:09:29.640settings are widening the gap between low and high functioning students. Because of all this,
00:09:35.880I think the strategy of moving to limit access to smartphones in our schools is an important
00:09:40.840step towards helping our students focus their attention on the learning and the development
00:09:45.400they need to do in order to flourish in the world that they're going to move into
00:09:49.400when they move out of school. Thank you, Minister. My name is Vicki Leong and I'm
00:10:04.640a long-serving teacher at Aurora Academic Charter Secondary School in
00:10:08.360Edmonton. I applaud the government of Alberta for taking the initiative to
00:10:12.280limit personal mobile devices and social media in our schools. At both our
00:10:17.460primary and secondary aurora campuses which raids in grades from kindergarten to grade 11 and with
00:10:23.540the addition of grade 12 in the fall we have policies in place that restrict the use of cell
00:10:28.260phones and personal devices during class time i know firsthand that this announcement today will
00:10:34.420benefit students across the province this announcement validates that what we have been
00:10:39.460doing at aurora charter school is in the best interest of our students learning and ensures
00:10:44.180teachers can focus on delivering the curriculum without competing with cell phone distractions
00:10:49.700i am sure that teachers can agree with me that the ping or vibration of a cell phone can disrupt
00:10:55.140the flow of a lesson or the overall focus of learning in a classroom even students who want
00:11:01.380to focus on learning may be distracted by their peers cell phones which isn't fair to those who
00:11:07.460are unintentionally distracted by the choices of others at aurora charter school we have always
00:11:13.540enforced a no cell phone policy in classrooms new students quickly adhere to this policy and
00:11:19.220understand its importance a whole school policy sends a clear message to both students and staff
00:11:25.300does it that this rule applies to everyone and in all classes i've spoken with new students to
00:11:31.700our schools who actually express relief that they have had to keep their phones in their lockers
00:11:36.820during class time many have said that they feel a sense of relief and that they can focus on
00:11:42.660learning and take a break from the constant barrage of posts notifications and the demands of social
00:11:48.580media we are living in a world that is becoming more digital than ever and our classrooms are no
00:11:53.700success exception technology is alive and well at award charter school as in many schools across
00:11:59.940the province and there's no disputing this however as educators it's our job to use technology
00:12:06.180positively enhancing learning rather than allowing it to become a distraction thank you to the
00:12:12.100government of alberta for implementing these standards to keep our classroom safe and conducive
00:12:16.580to learning all right thank you everyone for coming unfortunately due to some technical
00:12:23.300issues the teleconference future will not be available uh so we're going to take questions
00:12:28.100in the room for the minister so if you have a question please make your way to the microphone
00:12:32.820and please keep it to one question one follow-up and state your name and outlet.
00:12:38.420Hi Terry from CTV Calgary. First and foremost I was wondering if you can speak more to the survey
00:12:45.540and if that will be made public and why or why not. Sure yeah I'd be happy to just speak a little
00:12:51.540bit more to the survey. I haven't had the opportunity to explore further whether we intend
00:12:57.460to publish the results but I'd be happy to get back to you as we look at that in a little bit
00:13:00.820more detail but i do have a little bit more information that i can share the survey ran
00:13:07.300during during march into early april as well as i mentioned we received 68 000 responses
00:13:15.220uh it uh it really took off and i think that shows and demonstrates that there's a lot of interest
00:13:21.54090 of respondents and actually i should back up just very uh just a bit when i say respondents
00:13:27.060of course our primary target audience with the survey was parents primarily and also teachers
00:13:30.980and educators we really hit that mark the vast majority of respondents were parents and teachers
00:13:36.820and so 90 percent of them advised concern generally over cell phone use in school that's
00:13:42.100coming from both parents and teachers 85 percent of respondents believe that cell phones have a
00:13:47.060negative impact on student achievement 81 percent believe that cell phones increase the incidence of
00:13:53.780bullying and about 60 percent of parents said that having a cell phone negatively impacts their
00:13:59.140child's mental health teachers uh their views when we when we parse them out and just looked
00:14:05.060at parents versus teachers to see if there was some different results there they were almost
00:14:08.900identical in terms of the desire to see greater restrictions and their views about distractions
00:14:14.740and concerns we also asked teachers as well how often they they direct students to use them
00:14:22.260The vast majority of respondents indicated that they never, if very rarely, direct students to use cell phones at schools and did note that they are significant sources of distraction.
00:14:33.620So there was a high degree of consensus, if you will, in the survey results.
00:14:42.960We didn't see any major areas where there was significant disagreement.
00:14:47.200And were they asked if they wanted them removed from classrooms directly?
00:14:50.240Yes, we did ask very directly at varying grade levels as well, when and if they believe that students should use them.
00:15:00.600And interestingly, although not too surprisingly, parents and teachers believe that in younger grades,
00:15:09.400there should be very, very limited few, if any, reasons or exceptions as to why students should use them,
00:15:14.940Realizing that as students get older, there can be situations where we might be able to be a little bit more flexible and grant them a little bit more autonomy over use of cell phones.
00:15:25.340And so there was quite a degree of, again, conformity in those views.
00:15:32.040And I was just wondering if you could speak to, you know, as Minister, talking about the downsides of social media and personal mobile devices and cell phones in class, but also balancing that with just how much technology is used every day and these students in grade 12 are going to move on to university.
00:15:52.360We spoke to many today saying a lot of their applications are on their phones for school.
00:15:56.620And when they get out into the real world, you know, we use it so much.
00:18:43.180Understood. Okay, my apologies. Yeah, you know, good question. Of course,
00:18:49.020I think there's there's a lot of different variables to that I know over the past few years of course of trying to contend through COVID and navigate through those complexities and the priorities of policymakers, you know, changes over time.
00:19:03.020You know, one of the things for me as Minister that that drove me to really take a close look at this was a realization that the government of Alberta in the Ministry of Education has a technology use framework.
00:19:16.020and we use that framework to provide guidance and direction to our school boards about technology
00:19:20.640use. The document's 10 years old, so we'll probably need to do some updating of that
00:19:26.480general policy document, and a recognition of that, I think, was a need to have a closer look
00:19:33.620at some of the rules relating to cell phones and social media as a first step, but I think there
00:19:38.220needs to be more work done. We haven't even gotten on the topic of artificial intelligence and
00:20:08.500Like, I'm a little confused by giving them such power,
00:20:12.460yet trying to standardize it at the same time sure well recognizing that um you know school divisions
00:20:18.700are are different operate in different communities have different demographics uh so i i don't always
00:20:25.180believe in one size fits all policy you know can is is the best approach so we've set some minimum
00:20:30.220standards you know can't use your cell phone in class can't use your personal mobile device in
00:20:34.620class um and some other uh minimum standards as i mentioned earlier if a school board wants to
00:20:42.300impose some rules that are a little bit tighter they're they're welcome to do that and how a
00:20:48.700school board determines enforcement and deals with non-compliance i think is best handled by
00:20:54.540by the individual school board and where the devices are stored i know some school boards
00:20:59.180or some schools have you know lock boxes at the front of the class some don't so i think creating
00:21:06.780a one-size-fits-all policy as it relates to those kinds of questions might create some complexities
00:21:12.300You know, one school board might say, keep the phone in your backpack, it's good enough.
00:21:18.300Another might say, if you've got to keep it in your locker, our minimum requirements are that it's off and it's out of sight.
00:21:24.300So provided you meet that, we're okay with how you work through it.
00:21:27.300And just one quick follow up, and it might be a little too early to ask this question.
00:21:31.300To implement this, like we've seen that there's obviously an effect by having these cell phones in the classroom.
00:21:37.300Is there anything already in plan, like, say, two years, we'll look back and see how the standardization of the rules are taking effect?
00:21:45.280Like, is there plans for that in a couple of years?
00:21:48.160Let's go back and let's see how these implementations or the standardization is working.
00:21:52.860Yeah, we don't have a firm date whereby we intend to kind of go back and look at that.
00:21:58.320However, with the development of any new initiative or policy, we want to make sure it's effective and successful.
00:22:05.360So I will be talking with our school boards and teachers and other partners over the next few months and years to see how things are working out, whether there needs to be any tweaks or modifications.
00:22:17.920I think it's important to be responsive and adaptive.
00:22:22.960And, you know, I think it would be interesting as well, and I'll leave this to the academics to look at any relationship between today's decision and changes to academic success rates, performance rates, mental health issues or instances of cyberbullying.
00:22:41.700Some of the studies that we've looked at in the ministry do point to improvements in grades and decreases of bullying and other incidents as a result of similar policies.
00:22:53.000But, of course, no two situations are completely identical.
00:22:57.180So I'd best leave that to the researchers and academics to be able to draw some of those correlations.