phone wars
Whether we like it or not, smartphones are an integral part of our everyday lives. But their presence in FE can be disruptive and even addictive. Elizabeth Holmes explores whether it's time to ban them in such settings or if careful management is more appropriate.
Drawing on the views of educators, leaders and digital learning specialists, Elizabeth examines the growing debate around smartphone use in FE, exploring the balance between minimising disruption and helping learners develop responsible digital habite.
According to research by Ofcom (2025), 30 per cent of six- to seven-year-olds have their own phone. This rises to 42 per cent of eight- to nine-year-olds, 82 per cent of 10- to 12-year-olds, 97 per cent of 13- to 15-year-olds and 99 per cent of 16- to 17-year-olds. By the time learners are in the further education (FE) and skills sector, some will have many years of phone ownership behind them. Yet the role of smartphones in teaching, learning and college culture is one of the most contentious leadership issues in FE.
Navigating this charged debate means appreciating its nuance. Jonny Kay, education consultant and former teacher and leader, says: “Phone use is not a binary issue: I don’t think the solution is blanket allowance or banning.”
Fiona Beresford, a former manager at a large FE college in Wales and currently schools network director at Smartphone Free Childhood, agrees. “When we reduce this debate to a binary ‘to ban or not to ban’, we make the smartphone the subject,” she says. “It isn’t. The real subject is students, their development, their futures, their potential. FE and skills institutions exist to create conditions in which diverse student cohorts can flourish and excel. That’s the lens through which any smartphone policy should be considered.”
The question over whether smartphones are a challenge or resource is central to this debate. Catherine Shiel, quality teaching and learning manager at an FE college, understands the frustration tutors feel when inappropriate use interrupts a lesson. “But I also see daily how many students depend on their phones for translation, note taking, organising themselves and accessibility functions. When used well, phones can even increase engagement and motivation.”
For Shiel, the core question isn’t whether phones should be present; it’s how students learn to use them well. “Removing the device removes the learning opportunity,” she says. “Developing digital self-regulation is essential for preparing young people for adulthood.”
How this is best achieved remains open to debate. Owen Brignall, a teaching and learning coach in the FE sector, is cautious about the potential learning opportunities smartphones offer. “We have evidence of potential harms to young people and as a teaching and learning tool, there are better tools out there, for example, white boards for quizzes,” he says.
“Smartphones would never be the best choice for me. If students are on their own devices, you relinquish control to the phone. You have more control if you use the institution’s tech.”
Striking the right balance
Jamie Pearson, a lecturer in education at Darlington College, has changed his mind a few times over the issue. “Phones can be a great learning tool that add educational value,” he says. “But I’ve also seen students disengage in lessons to check notifications. We’re taught to consider cognitive load all the time and for the most part phones are an obvious extraneous load so, in theory, I see an argument for banning them.”
Brignall also recognises this risk of disruption. “You can have the best explanation of a concept but if students are disrupted or distracted then that explanation is lost,” he says. “Every notification can result in seven seconds of lost attention [Fournier et al, 2026]. The companies competing for students’ attention invest billions of dollars into holding onto it. We can’t compete with that in the classroom.”
Kay acknowledges that if smartphones are banned, it’s important to make sure this doesn’t limit strands of pedagogy. This means having sufficient funding and support so colleges can provide access to the technology students need – both to prepare for future assessments and future workplaces. “Most exam boards will offer a wide range of online exams in the next five to 10 years and tech in the classroom is fundamental for preparing students,” he says.
“We also need to be aware that phones sometimes mask underlying gaps in knowledge,” he adds. “Students might be brilliant at ecommerce or producing marketing-quality videos, but we also see poor basic skills such as using a spreadsheet or saving PowerPoint presentations in the right place.”
As a lecturer in sport and public services, Helen Smith highlights apps that can be used to improve analysis of performance. “If we don’t allow phones, we are not reflecting the real world,” she says. “When students use their own phone for recording or analysing performance there are fewer GDPR issues. We ask students to market themselves on LinkedIn. They see social media as fun, but we pivot that into marketing in the fitness world.”
Smith also teaches public service and policing, and being able to take pictures as evidence and store them in a file is key. “Using voice notes helps many students too, as does recording feedback,” she says. “Phones help them prepare for presentations when they record themselves at home and get over the awkwardness before the real thing. Rather than ban scrolling, I guide them towards constructive scrolling by recommending people to follow and videos to watch. This can help to align them with phone use in the workplace and avoid digital disadvantage.”
Pearson, though, points to the evidence that smartphones are impacting performance. “Ward et al (2017) reported that students who have their phone on the desk or in a bag next to them perform significantly worse in memory retention tests compared to students whose phones are in another room. In my experience, sharing this with students encourages them to put the phones away.”
"REMOVING PHONES CAN DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACT THE MOST DISADVANTAGED LEARNERS"
Draining the battery
Kay goes a step further: “While phones don’t directly alter brain chemistry, their use – particularly social media – can affect reward pathways and behaviour over time. Stronger regulatory safeguards, especially around social media, will help; we can’t risk losing student engagement and motivation to problematic phone use.”
Beresford points to a little-discussed side effect of smartphone dependency. “This has undermined trust in their own judgements, creating a need for immediate validation of their thinking,” she feels. “The moment uncertainty arrives, the instinct becomes to reach for the phone to check, reinforcing a misguided belief that making learning easier and quicker is the same as making it better.
“Restricting smartphone use in FE supports students by reducing this dependency. It encourages students to sit with uncertainty a little longer, to work through any difficulties and, in doing so, discover they are more capable than they thought. Reducing reliance on smartphones doesn’t restrict learning. It’s central to it.”
The dilemma that many FE settings contend with is whether an institution-wide smartphone policy is necessary or whether expectations around phone use sit within a college’s wider behaviour and culture policy. “A construction learner capturing evidence in the workshop is not the same as a learner in a theory classroom session,” contends Shiel. “We need shared principles not rigid uniformity so tutors can apply professional judgement within their subject context. Crucially, policies only work when expectations are co-created with students and when tutors feel supported, not exposed, in enacting them.”
The wider world
When it comes to preparation for work, alignment with the workplace presents problems. “Workplaces themselves are inconsistent,” says Shiel. “Our role is to teach the thinking behind professional behaviours rather than copying individual workplace rules. FE is uniquely positioned to guide students in understanding why expectations exist.”
For Beresford, the skills adult life demands are exactly the ones that unrestricted smartphone use undermines. “The workplace, higher education and adult life all require the ability to self-regulate, communicate effectively, think deeply and engage, without constant digital interruptions and reassurances,” she says. “Creating structured environments where phones are kept off, out of sight and only used in designated zones is a practical approach an FE institution can take to prepare students for their next step.”
English teacher and ESOL lecturer Memoona Afzal sees smartphones as a tool for the job market.
“Banning phones is not a solution,” she says. “We have to align with the workplace, not contradict the workplace. We are focused on structured control. We restrict use during learning time, but we don’t pretend phones don’t exist.”
There are concerns that a blanket ban risks widening existing inequalities. Shiel highlights that many students rely on their phones as their only device for internet access, study or for essential accessibility and inclusion features. “In the rest of their college life, such as payments for food, surveys or communication, we ask them to use their phones routinely,” she says. “Removing phones can disproportionately impact the most disadvantaged learners and unintentionally increase the digital skills gap we are trying to close.”
“The diversity of students in FE makes a blanket ban unenforceable,” Kay feels. “We have to respect the diversity of learners that we have in FE. Not all are 17-year-olds on TikTok. Some are parents with young children who need the option to contact home; others are business owners who need to take work calls.”
Shiel believes the solution to the tensions that leaders must navigate lies in relational practice, consistent expectations and equipping tutors with strategies grounded in restorative conversations. “Smartphones sit at the intersection of learning, independence and emerging adulthood, and if we oversimplify the conversation, we miss the developmental opportunity. Helping learners understand and regulate their relationship with mobile technology is now a vital part of that mission. FE is one of the best-placed sectors to lead this work.”
For Kay, we have to adapt smartphone policy and teaching. “Just checking the time on a phone, and seeing the screen light up, is enough to provide a dopamine hit,” he says. “It’s a societal issue, not just an FE one. A major challenge is that technology is developing more quickly than our knowledge about the danger of using it: do we properly understand the danger of AI yet? Possibly not, and it’s embedded into every smartphone. Education doesn’t always keep pace with that. There is also the risk of addiction, and of the destruction of dopamine centres, the decimation of attention spans and the loss of social skills.”
These dangers make it harder to create optimum circumstances in the classroom. “We need to talk openly about addiction,” says Memoona. “If adults struggle with screentime, why do we expect young minds not to be affected? We need to teach students that attention is also a skill and that there are harms of inattention. If we say we’re preparing learners for the future workplace, our approach to technology has to reflect that.” As the phone debate continues, it is clear that leaders must grapple with the best approaches for their individual contexts.
Elizabeth Holmes is a freelance journalist specialising in the education sector.
References
- Fournier H, Fournel A, Osiurak F et al. (2026). Attention hijacked: how social media notifications disrupt cognitive processing. Computers in Human Behavior 179: 108926.
- Ofcom. (2025) Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2025. See: ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/media-habits-children/children-and-parents-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2025
- Ward AF, Duke K, Gneezy A et al. (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.
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