Ava Shu ’27 tucks her phone away, adhering to device-free class policies.
Amid concerns about academic integrity and student learning, several academic departments and teachers have introduced new policies governing personal devices in classrooms and assessments, increasing handwritten work and the use of school-provided calculators. These changes have prompted students to adjust to new expectations for device use.
Caroline Odden, Dean of Studies, wrote in an email to The Phillipian that Andover has not changed its schoolwide policies regarding classroom devices. Rather, individual departments and instructors have developed their own approaches, which Odden said are intended to cultivate supportive learning environments.
The History and Social Science department’s new device-free policy formalizes similar approaches taken to reduce device usage in previous years. In an email to The Phillipian, Keri Lambert, Chair in History and Social Science, explained how the department came to this decision after observing the impact of device-free environments on student learning.
“In classes that emphasize discussion, devices can pose a barrier between students, suppressing conversation, inquiry, and connection. As a department, we’ve long observed students are more focused in laptop-free settings, and there’s research that shows learning outcomes are improved when students are taking notes by hand and reading hard copies of texts,” wrote Lambert.
Lambert continued, “There’s a certain comfort in knowing that when students enter the north side of Sam Phil, they’re keeping their laptops and iPads in their bags in favor of connecting with one another, digging into sources, and thinking critically and independently without personal screens pulling away their attention.”
The English Department has begun to implement similar changes, according to Stephanie Curci, Interim Chair in English. She touched on the benefits of handwriting for learning, a trend reflected in more teachers incorporating journals into their classes.
“We’re going device-free in [English-]100 classes except for when we use the Lockdown Browser or in the event a student has an accommodation that requires a device. This policy is increasingly common in most English classes. There’s a lot of interesting research about hand-written notes and cognition, especially because you’re synthesizing the thinking instead of just transcribing,” wrote Curci in an email to The Phillipian.
She continued, “Devices tend to be distractions more than anything else for students in class (and can be for teachers too!). All 100, 200, 300 teachers have chosen to require journals. Because of that, the department bought journals for all 100-300 students and should have received them in class.”
Mila Rowe ’29 has noticed these changes surface in many of her humanities classes. She commented on the difficulties of having to transition to writing her assignments by hand.
“A lot of my teachers are making us write things on paper. For example, in my English class, we’re currently doing out-of-class work, but we have to do it on a Google Doc where the teacher can see our version history. Then, in the winter and spring, we’re doing everything on paper and in class… I’m a really slow writer, so it’s kind of difficult. For English, if you’re writing something and then you have to edit it, you have to cross everything out. Devices are faster and easier, but I understand where the teachers are coming from,” said Rowe.
Lambert explained how the History Department seeks to address issues presented by Artificial Intelligence (AI) by designing classrooms to reduce device usage altogether.
“As our department revises our lessons, syllabi, and assessments for the age of AI, it made sense to collectively try out device-free classrooms. Many people—including students!—have become tired of the way devices and AI detract from our ability to think independently and connect authentically. Making our classrooms low-tech or tech-free spaces also spares teachers the nagging concern that devices are used counterproductively to surf the web or consult a chat bot,” wrote Lambert.
Acknowledging these concerns, Azul Cabrera ’28 felt that the policy creates inconvenience for those who prefer using devices for their learning. She suggested allowing more flexibility in this policy based on the type of assignment.
“I get it because everybody is using ChatGPT for assignments, but I wish it didn’t have to be so harsh so I could still use my readings on my laptop. [Classes could be] maybe device-free for assessments, but in class you can use your computer… [It’s] harder because you have to print your readings and stuff, and you can just sit online,” said Cabrera.
The Physics Department no longer allows students to bring their own calculators during assessments, instead providing basic scientific calculators and distributing departmental TI-84 calculators whenever necessary. John Rogers, Physics Department Chair, explained the rationale for this change in an email to The Phillipian.
“We learned that it is possible, and increasingly easy, to modify TI-84 calculators to be internet/AI-capable with little or no readily apparent change to the exterior. We felt that attempting to verify students’ personal calculators prior to each test would be impractical and would put both instructors and students in an awkward situation,” wrote Rogers.
This change in particular elicited mixed reactions from students. Tomas Tejapaibul ’27 viewed it as fair and important for reducing academic dishonesty.
“Devices in general can be potential ways for students to cheat, so reducing those opportunities is obviously a positive. Of course, there’s the disadvantage of convenience, as well as having to supply the calculators themselves. I’m not sure whether these calculators are new purchases, in which case you’d have to spend a little bit of money on them. But it’s a fair price to pay,” said Tejapaibul.
Chloe Ru ’27 expressed concern about the calculators provided by the department for their limited functionality in some areas. She thought that teaching students to use technology appropriately would be more effective than restricting calculator use.
“They’re giving us non-graphing calculators, so we can’t even use them to graph things. That’s really annoying because the TI-84, which we’re supposed to have, is a graphing calculator. But I do know that a lot of students will type formulas into their calculators as a way to cheat. They need to educate people instead of banning things because people are going to find more ways to cheat,” said Ru.
Lambert mentioned the History Department’s intention to help students navigate the transition to a device-free classroom and gauge its effectiveness moving forward.
“We want to support students in making this transition, for instance by teaching students how to annotate readings and take class notes. The adjustment might be hard, but I’m hopeful we’ll all be better for it. We’re revisiting the policy at the end of this term, and if it feels that it’s not serving its intended purpose, we’ll pivot,” wrote Lambert.
