We banned cellphones.
Suspensions went up.
Grades didn’t improve.
Bullying didn’t decrease.
Let that sink in.
A new large-scale study (40,000+ schools) found that while phone use dropped significantly, the impact on academic outcomes was essentially “close to zero.”
Full study: https://lnkd.in/dEMN_wJV
So now we have to ask a harder question:
👉 If it’s not COVID…
👉 If it’s not cellphones…
What’s actually driving poor educational outcomes?
Because removing distractions didn’t fix learning.
It exposed something deeper:
Students still struggle to focus
Engagement is still low
Behavior didn’t improve, at least initially
And learning outcomes didn’t move
This suggests the problem was never just the device.
It’s the system around the student:
Curriculum relevance
Instructional quality
Motivation and engagement
How students are taught to think and problem solve
And increasingly, how they interact with AI
This is exactly where my current research is focused.
My dissertation examines AI-Augmented Exploratory Learning (AAEL) and how structured guidance impacts:
Problem-solving performance
Confidence
Learning efficiency in real-world tasks
The premise is simple:
Learning improves not by removing tools, but by teaching people how to think with them.
We keep looking for simple villains.
Phones. Pandemic. Technology.
But education doesn’t fail because of one variable.
It fails when the learning experience itself isn’t working.
So I’ll ask it directly:
If removing phones doesn’t improve learning…
what are we not addressing in the classroom?
Robert Foreman
Doctoral Candidate – Educational Technology
Central Michigan University
Research Focus: AI-Augmented Exploratory Learning, Cognitive Apprenticeship, and how professionals learn with AI
Website: NhanceData.com
Email: forem1r@cmich.edu
Mobile: 480-415-0783
hashtagEducation hashtagEdTech hashtagAIinEducation hashtagLearning hashtagTeaching hashtagStudentSuccess hashtagCognitiveApprenticeship hashtagHigherEd hashtagK12