how to teach student journalism with a school-wide cell phone ban

[Katina Paron]

I wanted to share this post from the Journalism Education Association listserv from a Colorado teacher about teaching journalism when your school bans cell phones:

As you start back, many of you are facing a school year with no phones. Congratulations! We went to a no-phones policy last year and it has changed everything. Our kids are more engaged, we are having livelier discussions, kids are talking to each other, and we are covering material at a pace I haven't seen in years (because they aren't distracted during class). And, I was able to build relationships with kids so much more quickly than in the last couple of years because I got to look at their eyes instead of the tops of their heads!

Last fall, I was very worried about what that meant for yearbook. The no-phones policy made me look for a solution to the problems it would cause in our publications processes. I wanted to support the phone policy and didn't want yearbook living in a grey area that put admin in a weird place when it came to my kids doing their jobs. But, we had come to really rely on our phones for quick "talking heads" pics and for all our interviews using Otter.

THIS PICTURE shows my solution: 10 Lenovo tablets. (https://a.co/d/iokcCUJ - on sale right now!)

Each tablet is locked down except for the following (which we conveniently put shortcuts to on the home screen): Otter (https://otter.ai), the Camera, our Shared Drive in Google Drive, and Storage (to fetch pics and videos).

• Sign in: the tablets do NOT have a login. Tap the button or screen and they are on.
• Otter: all 10 tablets are signed into the same Otter account (mine). Because we also use the tablets to teach the JV kids to interview, we pay for Otter Pro, but I think most staffs could get away with the free version. Our process is that as soon as an interview is completed, the kids name the file the name of the interviewee. Then, as they are walking back to class, they upload both the audio and the transcript to the yearbook shared drive, creating a folder in the appropriate Coverage Color Group Week folder. (Having all the tablets signed into the same Otter account has given us an unforeseen added benefit. When the kids used their own phones and own accounts, we often lost interviews that students had forgotten to upload. Now, all of our interviews are searchable through my account.)
• The Camera: the system camera for these tablets is good enough quality for any talking heads pics or videos we may need. They are actually good enough for basic classroom photos in a pinch.
• Shared Google Drive: we are logged into the Shared Google Drive through a fake student that the district created for me. That way the tablets ONLY have access to our Shared Drive - not everything in my login. The fake student has "Contributor" level access so that they can add files but cannot move or delete them. That way, if one of our tablets every went astray, someone who found it could not cause damage to our files.
• Storage: if we take photos or videos that we want to upload to our Shared Google Drive, kids can either start in Google Drive and use the + to then navigate to Storage. Or, we have found it's quicker to initiate from Storage to the pic or video and then share it to the Shared Drive.

So, that's our solution. It's pretty straightforward and has actually leveled the playing field for kids who either didn't have phones or were on restriction for whatever reason. Even if the phone policy were to change - and I don't think it will - we would continue using this process. It's really been awesome.

I hope that helps any of you who are wondering what to do as your school transitions to no phones. Have and amazing fall and let me know if you have any questions!

Carrie Faust
Adviser - Summit Yearbook
Adviser - SmokyNow.com

Adviser - NEXT magazine
Reading Teacher

Assistant Coach - Speech and Debate
Smoky Hill High School
16100 E. Smoky Hill Road
Aurora, CO 80015
720.886.5469
faust....@gmail.com
cfa...@cherrycreekschools.org