GRANITE CITY – School Districts and teachers have continued to battle the distraction of cell phones in the classroom. Bill Henricks, a teacher at Granite City School District has developed a solution to help maintain the privacy of the student but cut back on the distraction they bring to the learning process.
Bill founded Jordiam, a company that manufactures phone lockers, to help solve a problem he has seen in his own classroom. These are not just any electronic storage device, they are designed with the student, teacher, administrator, and parent/guardian in mind. These electronic storage devices are clear and controlled remotely by the teacher by the push of a button. They can be mounted to any wall, desk, or table.
Teens spend an average of seven hours and 22 minutes on their phones a day, kids ages 8 to 12, are not far behind, at four hours and 44 minutes daily, according to a report by Common Sense Media. “After a case study I did during my classes, I found that students average around 100 notifications per 1.5-hour class. In a normal school day, they can average over 400 notifications. I like to call them “distractifications.” Says CEO Bill Henricks. These notifications can pull focus from the learning process.
These phone lockers allow for the phones to be out of reach during the instructional time but accessible when the proper time to retrieve or use phones as needed. There is no contact, touching or possession of phones by administrators or teachers since students can place them in there, shut the door and the teacher can release them with the press of a button. This keeps the student’s privacy and their phones secure from anything happening to them. “The ultimate goal for teachers and administrators is to improve student outcomes. By separating students from their cell phones we are helping teach students soft skills and allow them to focus without distraction on their work” says Hendricks.
Other cell phone holding devices are not made specifically for schools and do not provide the same safety and accessibility needed. Jordiam Phone Lockers are constructed to last and come with a lifetime warranty. These phone lockers are currently being implemented in schools throughout the St. Louis area.
