Tools, trackers, and research to help Pennridge families and our schools make more intentional decisions about technology.
Phone-free, bell-to-bell schools give kids a real break from their devices during the school day. The Phone Free Schools Movement is a great place to start, and PA Unplugged's one-pagers cover what these policies are, why they work, and how to implement them well.
A national hub of guides, research, toolkits, and real-world examples for going phone-free, including their "From Awareness to Action" blueprint.
What phone-free, bell-to-bell schools actually look like, plus straightforward answers to the objections you'll hear most.
Read the one-pager →The case for bell-to-bell phone-free policies, grounded in research and the results PA schools are already seeing.
Read the one-pager →The implementation options districts can choose under the law, and why no phone access during the day is the best practice.
Read the one-pager →Landmark experiment showing that simply having a smartphone nearby, even silenced and face-down, measurably reduces working memory and focus. (Ward, Duke, Gneezy & Bos, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2017)
Read the study →National data on how much U.S. adolescents use their phones during the school day, from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study.
Read the study →Children's Hospital of Philadelphia research, published in Pediatrics, on adolescent smartphone use and wellbeing.
Read the study →These statewide tools from PA Unplugged help you advocate, stay informed, and see how Pennsylvania schools are changing.
A step-by-step guide to advocating for healthier, evidence-based technology use in your school, with templates, talking points, and key research.
Open the guide →See which Pennsylvania schools have adopted bell-to-bell phone-free policies, mapped, searchable, and kept up to date.
View the tracker →Track Pennsylvania bills on student phone use, screen time, and ed tech as they move through the legislature.
Follow the bills →Share your experience with technology in your child's school, and help us understand what families across PA are seeing.
Take the survey →Teachers and school staff: tell us how technology is being used in your school and classroom.
Take the survey →Explore the results: what Pennsylvania families are reporting about screens and devices in the classroom.
See the data →Key reading on technology in schools, gathered for the PA Unplugged advocacy guide. The studies and guides below come from a range of independent researchers and organizations.
Must read. The most important book for understanding why ed tech isn't working the way we've been told.
View resource →A framework for evaluating classroom technology, from Transformative to Disruptive.
View resource →Foundational principles for responsible tech integration in schools.
View resource →Practical guide with templates for communicating with schools about technology.
View resource →A ready-to-use list of questions every parent should be asking about technology in their child's school.
View resource →The best independent, evidence-based resource for schools to teach students and parents about healthy technology use.
View resource →Kids who can swipe through an iPad can't necessarily create a folder, format a document, or evaluate a website. This maps the real skills they should be learning.
View resource →Comprehensive research synthesis on technology in K-12 education.
View resource →Peer-reviewed research linking early screen time to lower academic achievement.
View resource →Critical analysis of how commercial platforms collect and sell student data.
View resource →Neuroscience research on how technology affects children's developing brains.
View resource →Critical examination of 1:1 iPad initiatives and their educational outcomes.
View resource →