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Screen-free classrooms
at harvard

the gold standard

As graduate students studying education, we wanted to bring appstinence to our own classrooms. As K-12 phone bans sweep across the United States and countries around the world make serious moves to control tech use, we thought it would be an oversight not to look into our own learning spaces.


By engaging our fellow students and knowledgeable faculty, we are advocating for classrooms to adopt low-tech or no-tech classroom policies. Our recommendations keep in mind that students have varying needs and the school utilizes a vast array of pedagogies. While this change can feel awkward to implement, it’s important that our classrooms reflect the absolute gold standard of learning.

Drawbacks of Tech Misuse/Overuse in Class

Negativity externality

Off-task device usage for laptops and phones is disruptive to students and peers in their learning.

Hall et. al, 2020; Glass and Kang, 2019; Felisoni and Godoi, 2018; Bjornsen and Archer, 2015; Demirbilek and Talan, 2018

Impaired Learning

Laptops for note-taking impair learning due to “shallow processing”, impacting exam performance and long-term retention.

(Mueller and Oppenheimer, 2014)"

Guiding Values

We assume these list of values driving HGSE policy:

⚖️

Equity (e.g., students with accommodation needs)

🤝

Inclusion

🤝

Inclusion

📚

Diverse learning needs

📚

Diverse learning needs

📚

Diverse learning needs

🎨

Variety of faculty pedagogies

🎨

Variety of faculty pedagogies

💬

Role of social interaction in effective learning

💬

Role of social interaction in effective learning

💬

Role of social interaction in effective learning

👑

Responsibilities of students outside of classroom

👑

Responsibilities of students outside of classroom

👑

Responsibilities of students outside of classroom

Connect With Us

For questions or inquiries, please visit our contact page or email us at hey@appstinence.org

Connect With Us

For questions or inquiries, please visit our contact page or email us at hey@appstinence.org

Connect With Us

For questions or inquiries, please visit our contact page or email us at hey@appstinence.org

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