Tag: technology

Almost Two Years In: The Effects of MCPS Cellphone Policies at Christiansburg Middle School

By Emily Dorsey, politics and government reporter

I sat down with Joseph Caldwell, an assistant principal at Christiansburg Middle School, to discuss the effects of cellphone policies he sees day to day. 

CMS has implemented phone policies beginning in March 2024, ahead of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 33, which took effect Jan. 1, 2025. CMS began with prohibiting cell phones and other electronic devices during the school day. By June 2024, all Montgomery County Public Schools issued a county-wide policy. In its final guidance for cellphone-free education, the Virginia Department of Education in September 2024 established the “bell-to-bell” cell phone-free policy.

Caldwell has 16 years of teaching experience including transition programs for students with behavior challenges, civics and economics and U.S. history from 1865 to present. Last year was his last year teaching in the classroom before this administrative role. Looking back on the last 17 months, Caldwell addresses the support from the community, policy details that acknowledge unique circumstances and the next challenge the education system is facing: artificial intelligence. 

Caldwell’s comments were edited slightly for length and clarity.

Joseph Caldwell, assistant principal at Christiansburg Middle School. (Courtesy of Joseph Caldwell)

MCPS was doing cellphone free school days last academic year. In January, a bell-to-bell phone ban was implemented. What changes, positive or negative, have you seen with that extra implementation? 

Students are more engaging academically than they were previously. Technology still tends to be a challenge; now the technology is Chromebooks. We’ve been trying this year, as an administrative team, to communicate with teachers to use Chromebooks less than they are used to because students will find ways to be distracted. They are really quick about flipping tabs. Even though there is software teachers can use to monitor it, teachers get more distracted with management than they do teaching.

Students on a limited English proficiency plan or students with disabilities have access to programs on their phone or Chromebook. Why is it important for these students to have access to certain platforms other students may not have? 

We will still make exceptions for students to use it [phones] for tools like translating purposes. Students with monitoring devices for their diabetes are allowed to carry their phones. That is just a different conversation we have with those students. And then there’s also 504 plans and IEPs in place that allow for that. But a lot of the tools that students would need their phone for, their Chromebook can serve that purpose, as well. 

According to Cardinal News, policy violation does not lead to suspension or expulsion without being tied to an instance of disruptive behavior. Why is it important for administrators to see the differences between certain circumstances? 

State law doesn’t allow us to expel students for phones. The heaviest punishment we have in our policy is to assign Saturday school and that’s either on the third or fourth offense. Those consequences become inconvenient enough for the parent that we usually don’t get that far. We have other systems in place, for students that need that technology, that becomes part of a bigger conversation. Like being responsible with technology and how they use it. 

How do you or the MCPS staff navigate various parent or student opinions regarding these state laws?

We had a lot of positive support from the community. Last year we allowed it [cellphones] during bus-wait in the morning and afternoon, while other schools in the county did not. This year we became even more restrictive because we changed it to where they couldn’t have it during bus-wait and I expected a lot of push back from that, but we didn’t have any. We had a couple road bumps along the way, but for the most part parents didn’t say anything. 

What day-to-day changes have you seen in students as a teacher over these couple of years with the cellphone policies implemented? 

As a teacher I have observed the changes in young people not just phones, but screens in general. I observed a noticeable decline in academic achievement in my first decade of teaching. I started to unofficially poll my students asking them who owned phones.  Those that didn’t, were more academically successful than those that did.  Now, there’s not really an observable difference because most young people have some kind of screen in front of them at some point during the day.  Behaviorally what I have observed in the building are kids being more social with one another.

How do you see the future of cellphone policy usage in schools? 

I don’t see it changing any, we aren’t seeing a lot of public pushback from it. I think they [families] see the challenges of technology, too, so I think they are supportive of it [current cellphone policies]. If anything the bigger conversation is centering around what to do with AI. 

Students seem to rely on AI as a crutch versus a resource. How should teachers and administrators approach AI in the classroom? Do you see a benefit to this technology as a learning function or is it disruptive like cellphones? 

I see it costing students more at this point, since traditional classroom practices require us to process information deeper to get to places of real understanding. I think it needs to be a part of classroom conversations, but, at least for middle schoolers, not sure it is something that needs to be handed over to them. Most often we do have students use it [AI] to cheat which most of the time is blatantly obvious. Also, if it is used for feedback from a teacher to a student I believe it only weakens the role of the teacher to build authentic relationships with her/his students. 

The benefits of not using cellphones definitely extend after the school day. Research shows the harmful correlations between cellphones and children. How can families help support this cause outside the classroom? How and why should students limit their cellphone usage even outside the classroom? 

I think this goes for all of us, not just young people. I know that I am impacted by it, and now that I have been mindful of it, I know how it impacts me. At the end of the day, we don’t like people telling us what to do. It’s not really effective for genuine buy-in to bring change. I think parents need to be mindful of their use of technology in the home as well as the young people they are raising. 

International Art Exchange Gets It’s Start at Virginia Tech.

By Zain Omar

The Art, Research, and Technology Exchange (ARTx) was founded in collaboration with Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology (ICAT) and hosts conferences in specialized performance venues with universities on the advancement of technology’s role in art.

The idea of ARTx came to fruition when Kyle Hutchins, assistant professor of practice at Virginia Tech, played a piece that was composed specifically to be played at the Cube in Moss Arts Center. He realized that certain works could not be duplicated or transferred to digital media because the experience of the performance is affected by the environment.

ARTx allows for professionals and students in the art space to research the impact that advancements in technology affect the way art is shared, learned and taught. Universities and organizations have the opportunity to be awarded grants for their research to keep advancing multimedia performance spaces on their campuses. Virginia Tech was awarded the SEAD grant to fund future projects at the Cube during the spring 2024 ARTx conferences.

ARTx features guest lectures at their event where researchers and art faculty from around the world can share how they found that technology has impacted the learning and performance landscape. Music therapist, Grace Carr, has experienced first-hand how technology has affected the way we learn art. “As a music therapist, I have seen first-hand how teaching music and understanding it have changed because of technology. It is my opinion that technology has allowed for teaching to become much more accessible and readily available to people,” said Carr.

ARTx research focuses on advancements in technology and how they impact the way art is shared, whether in educational environments or in specialized performance venues, such as the Cube. According to Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology, “The initiative emphasizes collaborations with peer institutions that feature spatial audio and multimedia performance spaces and festivals.”

Advancements in technology also play a role in art classrooms. As new technology is being introduced each year, students and teachers must adapt to new ways to create.

Advancements in technology change the learning landscape for students who are pursuing careers in artistic fields. Former music education student and Music Therapist Grace Carr found that technology has enhanced the learning environment when it comes to artistic fields. “I would say that technology has changed the way we learn art, in that it had simply added on to what we learn. That is not to say that I didn’t learn anything the “old fashioned” way. When I was learning to transcribe music, I would first learn on paper, then on a computer software. So, I would say that in leaning art, technology can help us enhance what we already know,” said Carr.

With the rise of art created for specialized research environments, institutions have found that sharing their work in other settings can be difficult. “When institutions have highly specialized research spaces for art-making, sharing work with other institutions can become challenging, if not impossible,” according to ICAT. ARTx is a way for these institutions to team up to find ways to develop these works to be shared in other space.

Through ARTx, researchers are finding ways to better be able to share these works that have been composed to fit only certain environments. This research will open doors or new ideas and innovative ways that art can be created.

ICAT hosts collaborations with festivals, universities, and organizations throughout the year. They have currently teamed up with 11 partners with locations all around the world. Currently, ARTx has partners in Canada, California, Ireland, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Virginia Tech hosts the New Music and Technology Festival every two years, where faculty and researchers apart from ARTx convene to share their research through lectures, performances and installations. The festival also features student works and is an environment for art and technology disciplines to learn and collaborate with each other. According to ICAT, “the festival highlights diverse disciplines, including music, theatre, cinema, dance, visual art, creative coding, computer science, neuroscience, molecular biology, robotics, and cybersecurity.”

Events for this festival are held in specialized research and performance spaces around Virginia Tech’s campus, such as the Cube, the Sandbox, and Perform Studio.

When Virginia Tech is not hosting the organizations that are part of ARTx, faculty is sent to attend conferences all over the world hosted by other institutions in the art exchange. The most recent conference that Virginia Tech attended was a five-day conference at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology in Montreal, Canada.

Through the collaboration with ARTx and ICAT, along with the other universities and organizations that have joined the art exchange, new understandings of the way technology and art intertwine will start to change the way we share and view art.

SCI/TECH: Complexities of Vaping

by Ava Dorn, Eden Kaplan –

Vaping has become increasingly popular in recent years, but what do we really know about it? This podcast explores the science, technology, and risks of vaping, and provides a balanced perspective on this complex topic. News Feed Reporter Eden Kaplan shares a personal experience to the topic. This podcast demonstrates the real health risks that come along with vaping. Whether you’re a current smoker, a concerned parent, or someone who’s just curious about vaping, this podcast will explore how vaping works, the health effects, and the marketing tactics that led to the younger demographic obtaining the addiction.

The catalyst for this podcast topic was the FDA’s recent ban on menthol pods. Here is an article discussing the recent ban. We discussed how even with the FDA’s efforts there are still room for appeals from these large companies. Only time will tell what the future has in store for vaping. For now, the technology and science of it all is still evolving every day. The Real Cost has made it their mission to inform young teens and adults on the health effects of vaping. Their website has a lot of extensive and accurate information regarding vaping, the long term effects and also resources on how to quit.