Research led us to Action.
Now we're measuring what happened next. Creating Connect Phone-Free was one part of our Honors in Action project. The next question is just as important: Did it make a difference?
Our Action Objective
Turn phone-free space into intentional opportunity.
Our research suggested that reducing immediate access to phones can create additional opportunities for face-to-face interaction. But it also led us to an important conclusion: removing the phone doesn't determine what fills the space.
Our Action therefore focuses on providing educators, families, and students with practical resources that encourage: conversation, collaboration, reflection, digital self-awareness, face-to-face interaction, and intentional connection. Our impact evaluation asks whether those resources actually helped create those opportunities.
Our Impact Journey
How our chapter moved from research to action, reached an audience, and began evaluating what happened.
- 01 · Research
Understanding the challenge
Our chapter examined research related to digital habits, student well-being, identity formation, and interpersonal relationships, along with the context of phone-free educational environments.
- 02 · Action
Creating opportunities
We developed Connect Phone-Free to provide educators, families, and students with practical resources encouraging conversation, reflection, collaboration, and intentional connection.
- 03 · Reach
Sharing the resources
Our website and toolkits provide opportunities for visitors to explore and use the resources.
- 04 · Learning
Evaluating experiences
Through feedback from educators, families, and students, we are beginning to examine whether those resources create meaningful experiences and what challenges remain.
Impact at a Glance
Connect Phone-Free in numbers, updated as people use the resources
Distinct visits to Connect Phone-Free, counted once per browsing session.
Every time an educator, family, or student toolkit page was opened.
Resources downloaded to use offline or in class.
Structured toolkit activities visitors completed.
Responses shared through the feedback forms.
Student experiences shared through the Student Feedback form.
Family experiences shared through the Family Feedback form.
Educator experiences shared through the Educator Impact Survey.
These numbers cover the whole life of the site. Activity from before live tracking is included, and new activity is added as it happens. Activity and feedback totals include everything submitted since the project launched.
Reach isn't the same as impact.
Visitor counts and resource engagement help us understand how Connect Phone-Free is reaching people. But understanding whether our Action is making a difference requires examining what people experience when they use the resources.
What We're Beginning to Observe
Exploring the experiences, opportunities, and challenges reported by people using Connect Phone-Free resources.
Where these observations come from
Educator observations describe what teachers saw in a classroom. They are not a substitute for students' own reports, and we keep the two separate.
Meaningful Connections
Face-to-face conversation, listening and responding, peer interaction, and inclusion.
Face-to-face interaction encouraged
1 of 1 educator response
Students listened or responded to one another
1 of 1 educator response
More interaction than typical phone-free time
1 of 1 educator response
Observed conversation, collaboration, or inclusion
1 of 1 educator response
Meaningful conversation or shared experience
1 of 1 family response
Preliminary · based on 2 responses
Digital Awareness & Reflection
Conversations about technology and digital habits, reflection, and learning something new about others.
Talked about technology or digital habits differently
2 of 2 family responses
Learned something new about a family member
1 of 1 family response
Preliminary · based on 2 responses
Participation & Comfort
Engagement in structured activities, comfort while participating, and willingness to take part again.
Students appeared engaged
1 of 1 educator response
Students appeared comfortable participating
1 of 1 educator response
Comfort grew during the activity
1 of 1 educator response
Would try another resource
2 of 2 family responses
Preliminary · based on 3 responses
Challenges & Barriers
Reluctance, discomfort, mixed experiences, and what makes meaningful connection harder.
Reported at least one challenge
1 of 1 educator response
Mixed or uncomfortable experience
2 of 2 family responses
Preliminary · based on 3 responses
Responses are combined before they appear here. We publish totals and themes only — never individual survey answers, timestamps, or identifying details. With a small number of responses, every finding on this page is preliminary.
What We're Learning
Our Action Objective was to turn phone-free space into intentional opportunity. Here is what the evidence so far lets us say — and where it stops.
Emerging Observations
The first people who shared feedback describe conversations they might not otherwise have had, students listening to one another, and moments of reflection about how phones shape attention. These are the early signals our Action was designed to create — but they are signals to follow, not proof of an outcome.
Challenges and Limitations
Some participants may feel hesitation or discomfort at first, and the challenges people describe tell us what to design around. Our sample is still far too small to say how common any of these experiences are, and student voice is the gap we watch most closely: until students respond directly, we will not describe their experience for them.
Continued Evaluation
Connect Phone-Free keeps collecting feedback from educators, families, and students. As responses accumulate, we will replace single descriptions with patterns, add charts only where the number of respondents supports them, and say plainly where the evidence runs out.
Our impact story isn't finished yet.