Welcome to this exciting simulcast between Transformative Principal and the Cybertraps podcast. Today we have, well, first I'm Jethro Jones. I'm your host. Welcome. Glad you're here. You can find me on all the social networks at Jethro Jones. And I'm excited today because we have Graham Dugoni, who is the founder and CEO of Yonder, which is a company that helps create phone free spaces at events, and at schools, and in schools.
Even in your home with what is called the home tray, which is a place where you can lock away your devices. And, uh, it even has mesh around it to prevent signal from getting through so that it really is a way put away out of sight, out of mind, which is a very powerful thing. We all have these phones and we're unfortunately so often addicted to them. Um, and so Graham, welcome to the podcast. Great to have you here. Thanks for coming on. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah. So we talk about a lot today. What's most valuable to you from our conversation? I think the most kind of inspiring and valuable thing was the story about your daughter and hearing her awareness about maybe the habits and the etiquette and the structure of where and when to use her computer and her phone. I thought that's a, that's a long term goal for Yonder's to encourage those kinds of things. of habits. And so to hear it coming from a young person is incredibly exciting to me.
Yeah, for sure. And, and what's so cool is that you talk about how to help people get to that point. And because I'm a nerd and been doing this for a long time, like I've been implementing the things that you talk about that I think are really powerful. And my most valuable takeaway is that We can teach all we want, but until people have the opportunity to experience and try it out for themselves, the teaching is, is just theory until they actually experience it.
And that's a thread that runs through our whole entire conversation. So, uh, I'm excited to have, uh, Graham on the program and we'll get to our interview with him in just a moment. So Graham, will you talk about the idea of a phone free space and what that means and why we should even be considering that.
Yeah. Look, I think phone free spaces are, Yon has been around for 10 years and we've been helping create phone free spaces, mostly in inside of schools and districts, but also other spaces, performance spaces and in people's homes and workplaces.
I feel like, um, what we hear from people and our belief is that In modern society where there are no more frontiers and everything is kind of constantly soliciting your attention all the time, pinging and distractions and emails, uh, technology is so pervasive that, you know, the idea for Yonder was to create these phone free spaces, kind of like a national park system inside of modern society, where you create spaces where you can go, and focus on whatever you're doing with
the people you're there doing it with, especially in an educational setting. I think it's absolutely vital because, um, it gives young people a chance to experience what life is like offline for a bit so they can have perspective, uh, on that as they get older. Yeah. So what is, like, why is that so important? Because they're, they're essentially not going to be away from their phones most of the time for the rest of their lives, I imagine.
So, so why do you see that it's still important to have that happen? Well, I think, look, I, I'm 37. So I grew up without a phone, you know, until later in high school, then a flip phone. And I think it's, it's important. It's difficult for us to imagine sometimes for digital natives who grew up with the internet and then a smartphone in their pocket, how different it is to walk through the world as a person with a computer in your pocket all the time and how that affects everything you do.
It affects the development of critical thinking faculties, the way you socialize, the way you develop your kind of character through difficult experiences. It becomes a, It becomes an appendage and in some ways a tool, but in other ways a crutch.
And so when it comes to technology, I think the goal for everybody is how do we educate young people on how to use technology appropriately and how to relate to the online world as something that's a little bit distinct and different from the physical world around you. And my belief is that we first have to give young people the opportunity for an extended period of time without it, to at least have perspective on what it is.
Otherwise, we're just kind of talking at a problem that is, it's too strong. It's, we're, we're visual animals and you have something flashing in your hand and soliciting your attention all the time. So it's difficult to use the rational brain to overcome something that's so powerful without giving young people the experience without it, so they can gain perspective on the problem. maybe how social media or aspects of the online world are affecting them.
And I think that that piece is really vital because going without experiencing it, it's more difficult to talk about it in the abstract and harder for kids to, to wrap their heads around it and harder for adults to wrap their hands around, heads around it for that matter also. So you talk about how Yonder is a program not a product. And how is that a different approach than, you know, just saying we're not having, we're not allowing cell phones in schools. How, how, why does that matter?
Yeah. Well, I think we've been doing this for a very long time and in countries all around the world, 22 different countries. And so we've seen the ubiquity of the problem, but what we also have learned over time is that It really is. It's a societal issue and it's a community problem.
So when you think about if a district is going to go and say, we want to become phone free for all our schools, and you look at an individual campus for school, maybe for 10 years, there's been pervasive phone use. And most of the districts we work with, they have some phone policy in place. The fact is it's just incredibly difficult to enforce. And so teachers are kind of forced to be the phone police throughout the day and have a million, struggles with that with students throughout the day.
So where we come in and why yonder is kind of a program is we know it's a community issue and you have to get the support of everyone in the community. So that's teachers, administrators, parents, and students. So that's really what we do is if a district is going to, wants to roll out an effective, uh, phone free policy, we'll come in and say, Hey, look, we've been doing this for a very long time. Here's what we've seen be successful in other districts like yours.
Okay. Here's the best way we found to communicate with your community. Of course, individualize to whatever, whatever they would like to do. And then we support from the beginning. through the start, the middle, and then year round. And that's what we found is important to not only begin creating a phone free environment, but also maintaining that in a positive framework, you know, throughout the year and the follow on years.
Well, yeah, Graham, that's so important because my experience has been that if, if everybody is not on the same page and on board with doing it, then There's no way that it's going to work. And, and that is essential because you can't have one teacher saying it's okay to use your phone and everybody else say no, because the law of, of entropy, where whatever the weakest link is, that's what's going to affect everything else. And so you're, you're only as strong as your weakest link.
That's the thing that was in my mind for a second to get there. But, but when that's the case, like As long as one person is saying it's okay. then there's no way to really control it. And so you have to find, you have to find a way to do it systematically and say, this is what we believe, and this is where we're drawing the line. And it's just, it's so difficult to do that, uh, without it being, uh, something more than just saying, you can't do this.
There's gotta be some other thing to go with it. And that's why I think Yonah is a really great example of that, because it's a physical thing that you say, here's how we're showing our commitment to this thing. physically by having a pouch that everybody puts their devices in. And then we don't have to, we don't have to have the argument or the discussion because we've already committed to that. What are some of the challenges with that though?
And the common complaints you hear about kids turn off and putting their phones in a pouch all day? Yeah, I think it depends on who you're asking, but I think part of what we're helping do is kind of reset norms with schools of, of structure around when and when not. When phones are and are not appropriate maybe to be used. And so a lot of parents sometimes will have developed a habit of communicating with their student or their child throughout the entire day.
And so one of the things we'll help with, with the district kind of frame that discussion is to let them know that. We understand the need. It's totally valid to want to know what's going on with your child and what their plans are and those things. But here are the things that are actually happening in the school and how that disruptive to the educational environment. Here's how that takes students off task, distracts them.
Here's the other things phones are doing in the schools in terms of coordinating fights, um, students videotaping things and posting them online that they maybe shouldn't, but also taking away from teaching time and these other things.
So it's kind of, Educating, helping educate parents that all the things they're concerned about, about their child growing up with a phone and all the impact that might be having on their development, that the school is taking a constructive approach to help create a space that concretely affects that issue. And here's what they can expect, so that maybe it leads to the district developing a new communication plan with parents to coordinate after school activities and things like that.
Like that, we hear that a lot, to kind of fill that gap. But it's an educational process of letting everyone know, here's the policy, here's why it's, it's positive. And that goes for students as well. A lot of students are not going to like the idea of the honor program day one, but begrudgingly, after a few weeks, we hear from a lot of students that they actually, they actually enjoy it. Because all their peers are in the same boat, so they don't feel like they're missing out on anything.
That's a key too that, that if, if somebody doesn't have a phone, they can feel left out. So like in my family, we have not given our kids phones and only two of my kids have phones. One is a senior and she got it this year. The other one is a sophomore and she got it last year when she got to high school. Now there are some cool things with that. Number one, I love getting text messages from my kids saying, I love you and have a great day. That's awesome.
And sometimes they say things to me in text that they wouldn't say in person. And that that's all well and beneficial. My 10th grader does take her phone to school every day, but my 12th grader doesn't, and one of the things we've been really clear with our kids about is we have. We have rules and we have expectations and we have ways of doing things and whatever your situation is, however you are, we're going to adjust and customize for you.
And my senior daughter, she's not going to do well with having a phone at school all day. And so she doesn't take it to school to school. And my 10th grade daughter, she, she can handle that. And so we're able to manage that from our perspective. If My kid's school had Yonder, for example, and I knew that they were going to be locking their phones away. Then I'd be okay with the senior taking it because she wouldn't have access to it anyway.
And then she could call us when she was done with school or track practice or whatever the case may be.
But. We have to make that decision, and I know that not all parents are putting as much thought and attention into that decision as we are, and, you know, there are, there are middle school kids that, and elementary school kids that have free reign access to anything they want, whenever they want, and there's a lot of problems with that, which Fred and I go into Very deep on our other podcasts, the Cyber Traps podcast that, that this is also going out on.
So this one's going to be on Cyber Traps and on Transformative Principal, but there's a lot of different family values and beliefs about how things should be. And this is something that to me seems important enough that everybody should be on the same page as a school. And you talked about some of those district communication processes that they could do to help. Help things get better.
Talk a little bit more about those, those parts of it, where districts or schools and parents can work collaboratively to come up with solutions to this particular problem. Yeah, look, that's a lot of, that's a lot of the work we do. If we were, we hear a lot now from, if we are from a district and they say, we'd like to roll out yonder next week, the first thing we'll say is, well, let's, That's great, but let's hold our horses.
We think it's a really good idea if maybe we get these people in the room and kind of understand the plan for communicating with your, with your community about the issue. And here's some thought starters on things you could work off of as you think about that. So a lot of our, our company is built around 10 years of that, of that experience. And we're more than half the company is kind of former educators.
And what we've really learned over time is we, we didn't kind of build our program in a vacuum. We built it through working with school partners and they helped educate us about how this would go. So as an example, in the early days, we heard from a lot of teachers saying, I really want to create a phone free classroom.
But to your point about the disparity and styles and different relationships and different classroom management techniques, we learned very quickly that that was not a good approach because it would be different in one place than another. And you were not creating a simple ground rule that everybody, all the students could kind of understand that when they step into the space, it, it's phone free.
And so we found very quickly that it, kind of a tier one support worked much, much, much more effectively. But it requires much more communication and collaboration with districts and schools to kind of get that buy in to move that forward. So that's, that's a lot of the work we do. Uh, the pouch is almost the last thing we do.
The last thing that we touched on, but we also help with that, which is the logistics of how to, how to set up in a particular school, knowing that every school layout is different. And we spend a lot of time making sure the X's and O's are going to flow smoothly. Yeah. So that, that brings up a really fascinating perspective that the Yonder product is this pouch that kids put their phones in, but the, the idea of how they.
unlock the pouch, uh, what they do with it, how they keep track of it, all those kinds of things are all parts of this bigger conversation that you, you have to have a plan for. And so it would be really easy for a kid to say, for example, Oh, I don't have my pouch today, so I can't do this. And so what are some of the other things that have to go into place for the rollout to be Of course, it has to be accompanied by a strong and very clear policy. There's no doubt.
So that when inevitably a student on the second day of school gives, you know, presents that situation that you just described, I don't have my pouch. It's very clear then. Here's the tears of what happens next. Um, in a lot of schools, they'll say, okay, you don't have your pouch today. We're going to hold your phone at the front office and then maybe it's a call home to the parents. Um, but just being very clear with everybody with students about here's what's going to happen.
And then following through, especially in the first couple of weeks is what we find and what we really emphasize so that nobody's surprised. And then what happens very quickly is students realize that, okay.
It's much easier to go along with the policy because it's very reasonable, and they're more open to seeing the benefits, but you do have to hold the line a little bit in the early days because it's something new, and for young people, it's a radical, it's a radical change, um, and just, we try to acknowledge that and meet them where they're at and kind of talk through it so that they're open to it as they go.
Yeah, and I think that piece is really important because the kids have to Believe in the value of it as well. And so talk about kids understanding the value of it. What are the things that you've seen? There's a couple of great videos on your, on your website that people can go watch, uh, especially from a school in New Zealand, which is just awesome how they're talking about it and how the kids are saying all these positive things, but share your perspective from what you've heard.
That's the best part of my job. Yeah, because that's our ultimate goal is to educate young people through experience. So that as they get older, they can make their own choices about the role that technology should play in their lives. That is our goal and it's education. But the big shift we've seen, I would say since COVID probably is more and more students and young people are, they're open to the idea and they know what they're doing. They're smart.
They know that there's something kind of off about spending a lot of time online, and they're kind of aware, more or less, that it's having some negative effect on them, maybe socially, academically. Our goal is to help frame it in a positive light, so that as they experience being without their phone, they can kind of appreciate the difference. And that's what we're hearing from more and more students is, Hey, I feel much more focused, much more present.
I've made a lot more friends this year already than I did in the past. Or we've heard from librarians that more books have been checked out in the first month of school than the entire previous school year. Or the re emergence of chess clubs and things at lunch, where before students were off scrolling. So it just, it's fun to watch the things that flourish inside of environment once you just create something that's conducive to that kind of thing.
Yeah, and, and you hinted at something there that I think is really powerful, this idea that kids recognize that this is not wise or something that they should have unfettered access to. And, and what I've seen with my own kids and their friends is, a desire for them to have some boundaries around it and wanting to be told, no, you can't do this. So they have an excuse.
You know, another example from our family is that our kids charge their devices, uh, upstairs in the living room and not in their bedrooms. And my office that I'm in right now is downstairs where the kid's bedroom is. And, uh, my daughter edits podcasts right behind me, um, at her desk. And the other day she brought her computer upstairs at like 10 o'clock at night and said, Dad, I just feel this pull to check my computer for my messages from my friends.
And I know I need to go to bed, but it's tempting me. So I want to put this up here. Where can I put it? And I was like, what a mature, awesome young woman. Who's showing like, this is a temptation. I don't need it. I need to be asleep in bed right now. Cause it's late. Like that kind of thing is really powerful.
Having the computer down here wasn't a problem for me, but it was for her and because we've talked about this so much, she felt comfortable coming to me and saying, here's, here's a problem. And I want your help overcoming it. Yeah, I think that's wise for someone of any age to have that kind of, to have that kind of self awareness because it's hard. It's hard. And, uh, The tools we, it's well documented now are created to be pretty, um, attention inducing, you know, to, to encourage you.
And we're also very visual creatures. So it pulls, it pulls us in and there's something there. So I think that the need for structure and social etiquette around it is something that is a knock on effect when Yonder works with the school. And it also follows through to families and communities and starting to educate because there's a temptation, I think, to say, Well, can we just talk about it with students? Can we just kind of teach them and tell them?
And I think my response is, yes, absolutely. But also, along with that, giving them the experience and the light boundaries and framework is really important for actually educating them. Otherwise, you're competing against something that's not going to work. That is very visceral and is tied into your central nervous system, and that's not really a struggle. You're probably going to win without some support. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Last question, Graham, is if somebody's thinking about this or saying maybe we shouldn't have school phones in our school next year, where should they start? What should they do? What should the first step be? Well, I guess I'd be remiss not to mention our website, which is overyonder. com. Um, if they want to reach out, obviously we're happy to talk and, and walk them through it. But the main things I think we talked about are the most important things, is realizing that it is possible.
A lot of teachers we speak to, I think, have the impression that the, um, The issue with phones in schools has gone so far that it's impossible to imagine kind of a world where that genie can be put back in the bottle a bit. And I guess it's our role to say, yes, it can. But there's also some things that you kind of have to step through. And we have a lot of experience doing it. And a lot of it, a lot of it is about clarity and community buy in.
And that's, um, I mean, I think schools know that very well. It's like any other policy. It's going to be as effective as you can kind of, you know, Wrap your arms around it, but that's something we've learned, and we continue to learn in every, every part of the world. Yeah, very good. Well, Graham, thanks for coming on. Yeah, thank you so much for having me.