Manitoba’s new phone ban has exposed school device shortages and students have found workarounds to go online during class, but education leaders say it has largely been a success.
“Kids will always be crafty and keep us on our toes,” said Troy Sigvaldason, president of the Manitoba Association of Education Technology Leaders.
The rollout of restrictions on personal devices in 2024-25 and ways to replace their useful functions have been hot topics among the teachers and support staff who make up the collective.
Sigvaldason said staff are reconciling just how frequently many relied on phones, including to ask students to complete or upload assignments, and making adjustments. Some are playing music aloud during study periods in lieu of allowing headphones, he said.
Some schools do not have enough devices for every student so questions are being raised about what “equitable access” looks like and how budgets will respond next year, he noted.
“Has it changed the way students are learning in the classroom? Absolutely. Has it changed the way teachers are teaching in the classroom? Absolutely,” said the information technology director for Swan Lake-based Prairie Spirit School Division.
As far as he is concerned, the changes, which he said pupils have told him are welcome to force them to take a break and made them more engaged in classes, are for the better.
Starting this semester, kindergarten-to-Grade 8 students have been barred from turning on their cellphones at any point during the school day.
High schoolers are only allowed to use devices during transition periods, lunch and when a teacher explicitly approves use for educational purposes.
Sigvaldason said creative students have found hacks, such as using out-of-sight phones to hotspot division-assigned devices to get around school controls. Some also communicate with friends inside shared Google Docs.
However, the IT director said phones are no longer the wide-ranging distraction they once were and students are benefiting overall.
There have been fewer kinks than anticipated, he added. He attributes that to buy-in across the country to evaluate students’ relationships with devices coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than three-quarters of parents in the Winnipeg School Division said they agreed with the new rules in a recent survey. One in five said they disagreed with it.
“There’s no going back,” said Jennifer Scott, principal of Hugh John Macdonald School, a grade 7-9 building in Winnipeg’s Centennial neighbourhood.
“I can’t emphasize the social engagement enough and how bad it was (before the phone ban), and what a battle it was for educators who were trying to educate the next generation. It was really challenging.”
WSD polled parents and students on their impressions of the measures between Sept. 3-13. More than 500 responses, 406 of which belonged to caregivers, submitted multiple choice and open-ended answers on the subject via online form.
Some cited phones being a distraction, inequality between those with and without devices, and concerns about overuse, bullying and their child’s access to inappropriate websites.
Others said they wanted their children to be equipped with a device to communicate about emergencies and so students could take notes and do other academic activities to “keep up in class.” Some disclosed worries about students needing music and other applications to self-regulate.
There were few student respondents, accounting for about 0.5 per cent of the total population, but those who participated echoed many of the same comments as the adults.
“I disagree with it due to the fact that I used to use my device for educational purposes. It was 100 times more efficient, easy, and comfortable. Winnipeg School Division-school provided devices are slow, janky, and sometimes unusable. I believe that it is unfair to the students that did use their devices properly, respectfully, and understandably so,” one wrote.
Another said: “It will help me pay more attention in class, that is for sure. I wasn’t sure of this decision at first but now I can clearly see this will benefit many of us.”
Scott said her building is louder this fall and filled with more laughter, lively debate in classrooms, and higher participation in clubs and social activities at recess.
The cultural shift has been “massive,” she said, adding students are no longer “tuned out” and displaying “zombie-ish” behaviour.
Every teacher received about $500 extra from the school’s budget to purchase board games this year to help ease the transition.
The middle school principal said that the biggest surprise has been the limited pushback.
One student did try to convince a caregiver whose first language is not English that phones were not banned but rather mandatory, Scott said.
The principal set the record straight upon meeting the parent and sorting out the miscommunication.
“We high-fived after that,” she added, followed by a chuckle.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., Maggie was an intern at the Free Press twice while earning her degree at Ryerson’s School of Journalism (now Toronto Metropolitan University) before joining the newsroom as a reporter in 2019. Read more about Maggie.
Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.
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