Some young SA students using smartwatches to try to outsmart school phone bans

SA schools are having to figure out ways to manage wearable technology as savvy students find new ways to outsmart bans on using mobile phones at school.

Some SA students have been using wearable technology, such as smartwatches, to get around a ban on phone in schools. Picture: iStock.

Smart watches are being used by some young students to try and outsmart a ban on mobile phones in the state’s primary schools, the SA Primary Principals Association says.

Association (SAPPA) president Angela Falkenberg said how to manage the wearable digital devices was emerging as one of the early tests for teachers in implementing the new policy.

“One of the challenges people are talking about is the use of wearable technology, so smart watches and some children have very high-tech smart watches … allowing them the ability to text, access apps and so on,” Ms Falkenberg said.

“Children, as well as their parents, can be quite reluctant to hand over (these devices) and so this is an area schools are spending time exploring, both in terms of what the impact is on learning as well as what the management might be.

“It is important because the intent of this (mobile ban) policy is to reduce distractions to learning.

“So, while some might argue, ‘it’s not a phone’, we would say it is a distraction in the same way a phone is.”

Ms Falkenberg said the issue was most problematic in higher socio-economic schools.

Students were banned from using mobile phones at all public primary schools from the start of the 2021 school year – they are able to use their devices to and from school.

Ms Falkenberg said there were some exemptions for children with specific needs.

“Schools are still working through how that – having some children access phones while others can’t – looks,” she said.

“We are in a transition period, it is like when the speed limit changes, you have a bit of time to adjust your behaviour … I think, while there might be some who individually feel that the policy is frustrating or irritating, the majority are going, ‘OK, we can work with this’.”

ZERO TOLERANCE AT PORT LINCOLN HIGH

While the mobile phone policy formally applies to public primary schools, Port Lincoln High School has taken a zero tolerance approach.

And the principal of Eyre Peninsula’s 800-student school, Todd George, said the benefits, including to student and teacher mental wellbeing, were already showing, just weeks on from its implementation.

Port Lincoln High students: Sophie Lang, left, and Caitlin Cole. Picture: Robert Lang, ,

From the second week of this term, students have been required to lock their phones in a special pouch they carry with them as they enter the school, only unlocking when they leave for the day.

Smart watches and earbud devices such as AirPods are also required to be locked away.

“My overall comment is, it has been hard work but I can already see the benefit from the teaching and learning point of view and staff are so much happier because they feel like they can just come and do their job (and not deal with issues such as cyber-bullying),” Mr George said.

“(Surveys show) our students are engaging a lot more with each other, a lot more with their teachers and are doing a lot more physical activity and socialising at break times … it is a very different place than it has been in previous years.”

Special magnets mounted on the walls at the school are used to lock and unlock the pouches with mobile magnets available for use by teachers if the students’ phones are required in class time, such as to access apps during music lessons.