Phone Policy

[Libby K]

Totally agree that a 'phone jail' only makes things worse in a lot of cases. Our set of policies took a few years to really settle into, but at this point our students see it as a part of the deal while being on the team - and respect that putting your phone away and engaging with the team is what's asked of them as a 1923 student.

During meetings: When the whole team is together, with a handful of leaders or mentors addressing them - we have two rules. No cell phone use, and no side conversations. Our team is big (120+ this year) and if we're trying to get a piece of information to the whole room, it's probably because it needs to be heard. It's a respect thing, but it's also an efficiency thing.

If it's something small, like one kid playing a game on their phone off to the side, one of the mentors or leaders will walk over to them and remind them of the rule. If it's something big and disruptive, like 6 kids talking in the back amongst themselves, we end up having to do the classic "I'll wait" teacher move...

In our shop: Same basic idea - if we're having a group discussion on something, the phones need to be away. If their parents call them, then go ahead and step away, take the call as needed - but don't let it be a distraction. The students use their phones to contribute to their engineering notebook, so it would be silly to take them away entirely. If we see them totally disengaging from their build time and spending it on facebook, instagram, snapchat, texting their buddies - then we remind them they're here to work. They can scroll social media when they're waiting for their ride home.

During any down time, they're on their phones. Sometimes, so am I! It's just the nature of using the device for communication, entertainment, and managing your life.

On trips, they are welcome to use their phones for the bus ride, in the hotel, and most importantly - communicating with their family! - but when they're in the stands during ceremonies or while scouting, we make sure the phones are away unless absolutely necessary. That's the big one for us - show us that you want to be there! If you didn't come to the competition to be a part of the competition, why did you take up a seat on the bus?

TL;DR We don't do phone jail, but expect our students have their phones away during important discussions, while working on the robot, scouting, or out of respect for an event's ceremonies.

[Rick]

78 requires both students and mentors to store phones while in our shop for safety and productivity reasons. We have a designated area to use phones if needed.