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Brian Fitzpatrick

Brian Fitzpatrick

National Research Manager at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education policy think tank; author of "High Tech, Low Standards: High School in the Age of Distraction."

Sep 9, 2026

5:59
And we should say here, I mean, in some cases, these are their own devices, right? Their own phones or, I don't know, their MacBooks or something, and in some cases, these are the school's devices, right? The Chromebooks assigned to them.
6:10
them.Yes.
6:11
So that's our third finding is that school-issued devices are a big driver in this sort of use.
6:19
So many students say, in fact, sixty percent of students say they are on a school-issued device for the majority of class time.
6:27
Uh, so just thinking through the ac- actual logistics of watching a YouTube video, while you're not supposed to be watching a YouTube video, you kind of have to think through, you know, social media or texting, you can pull out your phone and kind of, you know, put it to the side where the teacher can't see.
6:44
Watching a YouTube video, you gotta have noise.
6:46
It almost req-- I don't wanna say re- requires, but, like, you need headphones in, uh, probably.
8:59
Well, c- can you explain that one too?

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