Are teachers struggling to teach in the post-pandemic world?

Teachers around the world, rejoice! Together, we have made it through the craziest most challenging year of teaching that any of us could have ever imagined. You did it. We did it! But as quickly as we celebrate our accomplishments, teachers are also laser focused on dealing with the upcoming school year and all the new challenges that will be faced in education post-pandemic. One major challenge that teachers will have to deal with this next school year, is the unwarranted and unwanted cell phone use in class by students. Over the last 12-16 months, students have become more reliant, dependent, and addicted to their cell phones on a personal level and surely as a tool to help them with their academics. Around the world, the pandemic has turned smartphones from a luxury to a must-have. Prior to the pandemic, according to a 2017 article in the WSJ, about 73% of teens have or have access to a smartphone. Now we can only assume that coming out of the pandemic that teachers can expect a drastic increase in the number of cell phones being used by students in the classroom and students being very reluctant, or even unable, to put their devices away during class instruction. And, we all know, that cell phones are here to stay. The problem is pervasive but there is a simple solution, PLUGGED IN.

Until the creation of PLUGGED IN, the only option schools and teachers had was prohibition. Students across the U.S. and the world are being forced to lock their phones in pouches, lockable storage units, or asked to not bring their phones to school at all. The only problem is that prohibition doesn’t work. History has clearly proven this. Schools who have adopted the prohibition approach to cell phones are finding themselves in constant litigation. Parents are more than willing to sue school districts who are taking cell phones away from their students. Cell phone prohibition is creating an adversarial relationship. Schools, and their teachers, are now pitted against the students and their parents. This hostile relationship is not going to be conducive for student learning or student success. Schools should focus on improving student learning and teaching positive student behaviors. Prohibition of cell phones will result in increased student anxiety and the result of that will be less student learning. Prohibition will also teach students negative behaviors as they are now encouraged to find ways around the mandated prohibition of cell phones

PLUGGED IN takes a completely different approach to managing cell phones allowing teachers to take back the classroom. Empowerment. PLUGGED IN empowers students to voluntarily put up their cell phones by incentives. Unfortunately, a teacher telling students that “if they put their phones away during class, they will learn more”, is just not incentive enough for students to actually do that. So, the incentive must be the right incentive! The amazing thing about PLUGGED IN is that every teacher using the system can decide what the “right” incentives are for their individual classes and students. Class by class, student by student, teachers can now tailor the incentives that will work best to motivate students to disengage from their phones and engage in learning. Schools could also create their own incentive programs, assisting in the success of PLUGGED IN on their campuses. Empowering, not prohibiting, our students is what teachers and schools should be focused on doing. PLUGGED IN is an empowerment tool. Head on over to www.pluggedin2ed.com to see how our solution will empower our students and take back the classroom for our amazing teachers.