The short version
Devices in classrooms measurably reduce comprehension, exam performance, and long-term retention — for the user and for the students sitting nearby. Even a silent, face-down phone taxes the mind that owns it. So in this course, phones live in a numbered cubby by the door, and notes are taken by hand.
What the research shows
The distraction effect is contagious
Students who multitask on laptops during lectures impair their own comprehension — and drag down the performance of the peers around them. One open laptop is second-hand distraction for a whole row (Sana, Weston, & Cepeda, 2013).
The pen beats the keyboard
Longhand note-takers understand and retain more than laptop note-takers. Typing invites verbatim transcription; writing by hand forces you to process ideas and put them in your own words (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014).
Brain drain: presence is enough
Your phone doesn't have to be on to cost you. With a smartphone merely within reach — off, face-down, silent — available cognitive capacity drops, because part of your mind is busy resisting the urge to check it (Ward et al., 2017).
Devices cost us each other
Phones on the table during face-to-face interaction make people more bored and less connected to the people they're with (Dwyer, Kushlev, & Dunn, 2018). A discussion course runs on exactly that connection.
The mind must work to ignore a device — and every ounce of that work comes out of your learning.
The newest evidence
Fresh from the literature, 2025
The cubby, at scale. In the largest experiment to date — a randomized controlled trial with nearly 17,000 students across ten higher-education institutions — collecting phones at the classroom door raised course grades, with the biggest gains going to first-year students and those who were struggling academically (Sungu, Choudhury, & Bjerre-Nielsen, 2025). In other words: exactly what we do in this course, tested experimentally, and it works — most for the students who need it most.
And across the whole literature: a meta-analysis of 45 studies of university students finds that the more frequently students use their smartphones, the worse their academic performance — a small but consistent negative relationship across contexts (Hsieh, 2025).
Check yourself
Before you sign, prove the science stuck. Answer all five correctly to unlock the signature form below — a wrong pick costs you nothing, but you have to find the right answer on every question.
What this means in our classroom
- Phones, smartwatches, tablets, laptops stay put away. As you enter, your phone goes into your assigned number in the phone cubby behind the door. Using your assigned slot matters: periodically, in the middle of class, I will take a photo of the cubby as a spot check. If you are in class and your phone is not in your slot, points come off your citizenship score.
- Notes are taken by hand. Paper is provided if you need it. Your future exam-taking self will thank you.
- One exception: when we run a PollEverywhere activity, you'll be invited to take your phone out — and only then.
- Accommodations are honored, full stop. Students with an approved accommodation specifically for device use should connect with me privately; exceptions are made without fuss.
- You'll sign the policy before our second meeting, so we all start with the same understanding.
This policy is a commitment to protecting your focus, reducing your cognitive load, and building the kind of classroom where deep, meaningful learning — and real conversation — can actually happen. Thanks in advance for your cooperation!
Sign the policy
You made it to the bottom — which means you've seen the evidence. Signing below tells me three things: you read this page, you understand that a device-free classroom is better for you, and you're committing to it for the semester.
References
Al-Sharman, A., Shalash, R. J., Omran, T. A., Elsayed, R. M., Warfa, I. A., Adawi, W. S. E. A., … Nashwan, A. (2025). Exploring the impact of note taking methods on cognitive function among university students. BMC Medical Education, 25(1), 1218.
Carter, S. P., Greenberg, K., & Walker, M. (2017). The impact of computer usage on academic performance: Evidence from a randomized trial at the United States Military Academy. Economics of Education Review, 56, 118–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.12.005
Dwyer, R. J., Kushlev, K., & Dunn, E. W. (2018). Smartphone use undermines enjoyment of face-to-face social interactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 78, 233–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.10.007
Glass, A. L., & Kang, M. (2019). Dividing attention in the classroom reduces exam performance. Educational Psychology, 39(3), 395–408. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2018.1489046
Hsieh, C.-Y. (2025). The impact of smartphone usage frequency on university students' academic performance: A meta-analysis of moderating factors. Acta Psychologica, 259, Article 105374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105374
Huey, M., & Giguere, D. (2023). The impact of smartphone use on course comprehension and psychological well-being in the college classroom. Innovative Higher Education, 48(3), 527–537. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-022-09638-1
Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159–1168. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614524581
Sana, F., Weston, T., & Cepeda, N. J. (2013). Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers. Computers & Education, 62, 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.003
Sungu, A., Choudhury, P. K., & Bjerre-Nielsen, A. (2025). Removing phones from classrooms improves academic performance (SSRN Working Paper No. 5370727). https://ssrn.com/abstract=5370727
Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140–154. https://doi.org/10.1086/691462