Time’s up on smartwatches in class: education minister

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This article was published 11/09/2024 (359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s education minister wants to make clear the new ban on cellphones in classrooms across the province is all-encompassing and applies to more than just handsets.

“You can’t be having a smartwatch that’s cell-enabled in a classroom. It’s no different than a phone,” Education Minister Nello Altomare told the Free Press.

“That’s a personal device that can cause a distraction and it doesn’t belong in a classroom, unless of course it monitors your glucose level.”

Over the summer break, the NDP government announced a sweeping phone ban in elementary schools and stricter rules that only give Grade 9-12 students access to devices during breaks. Exemptions are being made to accommodate medical and inclusion-related needs.

School boards have some flexibility to tailor their approaches but they have until Nov. 1 to update policies in line with the general directive.

Thompson-based R.D. Parker Collegiate has told families smartwatches should be set to “do not disturb” if a student brings one into the classroom and earbuds are not permitted during lesson periods.

Steinbach Regional Secondary School issued a similar notice, informing families the ban “extends beyond just cellphones” to include items such as tablets, e-readers, smartwatches, MP3 players and earbuds.

Critics of the changes have raised concerns about lags in communicating with their children during the school day. Smartwatches were recently raised as a workaround in a Facebook forum run for and by local parents.

Landon White, principal at Boissevain School, said he’s monitoring to ensure smartwatches, which he said have become increasingly popular among his students, are only used to tell time.

The older students school, who attend a K-12 building in southwest Manitoba, are expected to turn off cell-enabled devices or put them in offline mode to limit distractions during the day. Coaches are also being directed to store phones during extracurricular activities.

“Not to jinx myself, but it’s been OK. We’ve been pleasantly surprised,” White said.

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The school’s communal phone is already being put to good use, he noted.

Along with a reminder that students need teacher permission to make a call, instructions on how to use the corded phone — no longer the household staple they once were — are posted beside it.

School administration is asking families to ensure children memorize caregiver numbers so support staff are not bogged down with looking them up.

“At the start of my teaching career, it was, ‘How can we infuse technology into the classroom?’” White said. “And now, it’s, ‘OK, how can we limit the distractions that technology causes?’ It’s really flipped in the past (decade).”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.