HB 1481 prevents us from using phones in school. Sounds okay, right? It sounds fine until you realize that it’s not just instructional time, it’s from first bell to last. This makes no sense, and prevents students from doing things we need devices for, like homework.

Plenty of teachers give out digital homework or homework that requires something online. Paper homework is a rarity in the big 25. Athletic classes with weight rooms and running used to be able to listen to music, which has been scientifically proven to improve outcomes. Now they can’t. Game-based learning techniques such as Blooket and Kahoot have also made learning easier for students, and there aren’t enough chromebooks for all classes to use that. Phones and personal devices fixed that issue. And now they’re gone.

HB 1481 doesn’t help anyone. All it is is try to bring back the past in a future world. All modern devices access the internet these days, and we need to adapt instead of try to go backwards.