The Conference Coach™

Carolyn Bradfield

Children around the country are going back to school, lugging new backpacks brimming with school supplies and crowding into classrooms in the latest style of skinny jeans and t-shirts.  Teachers are thinking through how to meet this year’s challenges, how to motivate and how to educate their students.  Another thing they are also thinking about is of the growing dilemmas of how to manage the distraction of texting in the classroom.

ABC News today reported studies have indicated that texting provokes a response in the brain very similar to the one that addicts experience when they pursue their substance of choice.  The brain’s pleasure center lights up when a text is read and withdrawals happen when the person can’t get to the phone.  Addiction can be defined as the pursuit of the “substance” in the face of increasingly negative consequences.  Cell phone texters often meet that classic definition.

Cell phone texters will go to great lengths to make sure that they don’t miss that 20-word response to their last message.  They will risk their lives to send a text driving down the highway.  They’ll interrupt any conversation to reach for their cell phone when the text chime rings out.  And if they are a student, they will learn to be quite secretive as they learn how to text under their desks without the teacher noticing.

I used to be a teacher, one of the best jobs I ever had, until I found the world of teleconferencing.  Although I think everything I had to say in the classroom was compelling and riveting, even the best teacher is likely to find it daunting to try and compete with the behavior of the large number of cell phone addicts in the classroom.  It’s a “catch 22” scenario for these teachers.  Do they divert their teaching time to find and confiscate these phones or do they try and press on, hoping the students can multi-task enough to learn?

Although I live in the world of conference calling and my children are long past their time in the classroom, I would like to offer a simple solution that almost every parent can implement which would vastly reduce the amount of texting during the school day without having to worry about severing the umbilical cord between the child and his cell phone.

Many cell services, including AT&T the one I use, offers parents the ability to meter cell phone and texting habits.  With AT&T, a parent can turn off texting during specific hours, limit the number of texts or even limit where those texts are delivered.   Think about the change in classroom behavior if texting stopped when the bell for first period rang and only started up when students are heading for their buses after school?

Now why don’t parents do this?  First, I think they haven’t done the research into their cell services to see what is available.  It’s easy to do, costs only a few dollars a month for cell phone monitoring and is instantly available.  However, I think the real reason is that parents are afraid to separate their addict from the addiction.  Who wants to face the wrath of a teenage girl when OMG they can’t text their BFF during math class!

Parents, get a clue.  This addiction is distracting your child, lowering their ability to concentrate and learn, and handicapping them from forming real relationships.  If you knew your child was smoking pot, drinking or snorting cocaine during the school day, you would move heaven and earth to stop it.  It’s time to “man-up”, go online, sign up for cell phone metering services, and turn off those texts during the school day.

You may likely be your child’s biggest enabler in what is a very significant addiction.  Do yourself, the teachers and your child a favor and recognize texting during the school day for what it is.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools. You can try Copper’s affordable web and audio conferencing services — and get a discount for using our nationwide Local Dial-In network. Just sign up now.