Phones have come a long way from the bulky Nokias of the 90’s, and navigating usage for today’s youth is no easy task.

On June 17, 2024, the Minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides, gave an update on the province’s plan to limit cell phone usage in Alberta schools. Starting in Fall 2024, students will not be permitted to use personal mobile devices during class time and social media sites will be restricted on school networks.

“The risks to students’ mental well-being and academic success are real, and we must take steps now to combat these effects,” said Nicolaides.

The new legislation will apply to all public, separate Francophone, public charter and, independent school authorities.

“These rules present minimum standards and a board has the autonomy and flexibility to implement additional restrictions if they so choose,” said Nicolaides.

The generalization “personal mobile devices”, will include cell phones, smartphones, smartwatches, headphones and other personal electronic devices that students may carry. These devices must be turned off and stored “out of sight”, which can be defined by individual schools for what makes the most sense for their school setting.

“One school board might say, ‘Keep the phone in your backpack. It’s good enough.’ Another might say ‘Gotta keep it in your locker,’” said Nicolaides.

They received 68,000 responses from parents, teachers, and principals in a province-wide survey conducted between April 16 and May 3 by the Government of Alberta.

“Clearly parents and teachers alike have some clear views on this topic,” said Nicolaides.

Eighty-five per cent of respondents agreed that cell phones negatively impact student achievement and 60 per cent of parents also believed that cell phones harmed their child’s mental health. Only 1 per cent agreed that cell phones increased incidents of bullying.

Some Alberta schools already have cellphone policies

“The research is very clear, and smartphones in the classroom negatively impacts students’ abilities to focus and sustain their attention on their learning, but also on important developmental things like critical thinking, problem solving, and planning skills,” said Dr. Michael Boyes, developmental psychologist, Department of Psychology, for the University of Calgary.

Alberta is not the first province to implement a plan to control cell phone usage and distractions in the classroom. Ontario, BC, and Quebec have put similar restrictions in place that disallow students to access their phones during class time or the entire school day.

“The Government of Alberta in the Ministry of Education has a technology use framework, and we use that framework to provide guidance and direction to our school boards about technology use. The documents are 10 years old,” said Nicolaides.

Although these changes are only being applied province-wide in the coming school year, Albertan schools like Aurora Academic Charter School in Edmonton have had long-standing policies around disallowing cell phone usage in the classrooms.

“I spoke with new students to our schools who actually expressed relief that they’ve had to keep their phones in their lockers during class time,” said Vicki Leong, teacher at Aurora Academic School.

There will be case-specific exceptions to these new rules for students who require their phones for health or medical reasons, for those with specialized learning needs, and as educational tools. These parameters are again at the discretion of the individual school.

School policies should be coming out in the next few weeks or months, according to the province. The Calgary Board of Education said they will be reviewing the policy to see what it means for public schools.

“The Calgary Board of Education supports the government’s intention of creating quality learning environments that support the health, wellbeing and academic achievement of students,” they said in an emailed statement.

“We will share more information with staff and families in advance of the 2024-25 school year.”

Enforcement and disciplinary action for non-compliance with these new rules will be the responsibility of school boards around the province.

After implementation, the Ministry of Education plans to revise the new rules as needed to better fit the Alberta education system. No hard date for these revisions has been decided.