Your Cell Phone Ban Didn’t Work: Now What?

Many schools are implementing cellphone bans to improve student focus, behavior and academic performance, but early research paints a nuanced picture. Some schools report modest improvements, while others see minimal measurable change as students shift their attention to school-issued devices, disengage in other ways or continue to struggle with attention and motivation. This session moves beyond the phones-versus-no-phones debate to ask a more substantive question: What conditions genuinely foster student engagement? Examine how school culture, instructional design, cognitive engagement and authentic learning experiences shape student attention more than device policies alone, and why passive tasks, low agency and limited interaction drive students to seek stimulation elsewhere. Rather than treating distraction solely as a disciplinary issue, explore it as a challenge of educational design. Leave with practical strategies for auditing learning experiences for cognitive demand and student ownership, redesigning instruction for authenticity, collaboration and relevance, and evaluating whether edtech tools increase meaningful thinking or simply replace one form of passive consumption with another. Lasting engagement is created through design, not control.