THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO THE CONNECTED CLASSROOM: JUGGLING TECHNOLOGY, DISTRACTIONS, AND EXPECTATIONS IN HIGH SCHOOL A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY BY SARAH A. OUTLAND CHICAGO, ILLINOIS JUNE 2021 Dedication Page For my parents. Thank you for teaching me how to put a fountain in a lake. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................ viii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Technology as a Pedagogical Cure-All .......................................................... 22 Chapter 2: Competing Attentions Throughout the School Day ........................................ 50 Chapter 3: Digital Devices as Discipline Devices ............................................................ 83 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 116 Appendix: Study Design and Research Methods............................................................ 126 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 139 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A PhD is a team sport. Some people have to teach you and guide you, and others need to remind you that no one is thinking as hard about the things you are thinking about. To the many academic friends who have helped along the way: Alessandra Lembo, you came in clutch to help with a chapter redraft in the eleventh hour. But you also really helped shuttle me through our first few years as graduate students. You are brilliant and thoughtful and I am forever grateful that you never made me feel stupid when I didn’t understand theory or statistics or everything else I struggled with. I hope we continue sharing many more beers and concerts. Moira O’Shea, my fellow cohort Old. It is a special treat to make friends into adulthood and I really won the lottery with you. Thank you for making yourself available during fun times and crappy times. And while I hope you don’t end up half the world away, I will continue to schedule Skype dates with you if you do. Pranathi Diwakar, you once cornered me and told me I looked beautiful on a particularly rough day, and that was the start of this very good friendship. It is a joy to make school friends without talking about school. Your seriousness in all situations is truly admirable and I hope to continue enjoying the emotional thread that ties us together for many more years. This dissertation would be a mess without the thoughtful reading and feedback from my writing group, Sheha Annavarapu and Alex Brewer. Thank you for the time spend rereading drafts and for getting just as excited about teenage antics as me. It’s been a real joy to watch both of your works grow! To my original graduate school friends, Adge Brodyn, Adam Conway, and Josh Miles. You set a high bar for graduate school friends. Thank you for showing up, celebrating, and iv dancing with me. You are my favorite people to eat brunch with and I’m so proud of everything you’re all doing. The world is a better place because the three of you live in it. To the many, many non-academic friends who gave me places to sleep, food to eat, and plenty of things to laugh about and help take my mind off graduate school struggles: Pete and Gena, Chris and April, Trevor and Jihye, Daniel and Laura, Frank and Lauren, Emily and Bryan, Nima and Satyan. Thanking you here is about more than this dissertation. I’ve thrived in the last few years because of your friendships and love. Thank you for showing up when I was the least fun person on your social calendars. Thank you for gently shuttling me to the other side. To Annie Erb, my sister and greatest friend. I love you endlessly and forever. You’re my favorite person in the world. Every day together feels like a vacation. Thank you for everything. To my committee, Kristen Schilt, Forrest Stuart, and Anna Mueller. If I could draft my ideal Sociology Dream Team, it would be the three of you. Kristen, I am sure you have banged on, and knocked down, more doors for me that I even realize. You never needed to put forth the effort that you did to get me into graduate school, but you did and I am forever grateful. You have shown up for me in personal and professional ways that have set a standard I hope I can emulate in whatever comes next for me. It has been a treat to have an advisor who takes my work seriously and gets excited about Halloween Prom (without knowing what it even entailed). You make sociology fun! Forrest, in a lot of ways I feel like we slogged through the University of Chicago together, since your first year teaching was my first year as a student. Thank you for always jumping on board when I asked for your help. In many ways I feel like you helped turn sociology into a sport for me, which I have loved. Feedback sessions with you never felt daunting or like I had a big mess to clean up, but instead made me feel excited to continue doing the work. You’re one of the best coaches I’ve ever had and I thank you for that. Anna, it has v been a real pleasure getting to know you and work with you. Working with kids is a certain kind of joy and I’ve loved being able to share that with you. I hope our paths continue to cross for many more years! To the incredible Pat Princell, Meredith Clason, and Linnea Martin: you are the rocks of the sociology department; you are the best of all of us. The three of you have been the most incredible supports, co-conspirators, and joys during my time here. Thank you for everything. To Jeffrey Parker, the first person to help me choose graduate school classes. Thank you for your official unofficial role of Person Most Confident That I Will Succeed. Thank you for taking the time and giving attention to various drafts of various things I’ve written during graduate school and for thanking me for letting you read them. You’re a real one, friend. To Katie Hendricks, incredible tv companion and member of the Fireside Appreciation Club. Thank you for answering all my school-related questions and for always remembering the past plots of Riverdale. I am so, so excited to see what you do next. The love of my work life, Melissa Osborne. My dream is that we one day work and live in neighboring buildings so we can carpool together ad infinitum. Thank you for answering every question I’ve ever had. Ever. You should maybe be credited as the coauthor of this dissertation. Thanks for being there for the dark shit and the good shit. Thank you for making graduate school fun and keeping adulthood playful. Thank you for being one of the smartest people I know who had things to talk about besides sociology. To KSB: you were the first person to believe I could do this and I wouldn’t be here without you. I really wouldn’t be here without the help of Noah Askin, who once suggested in an email that I talk to my now-advisor, Kristen. Noah, you are one of the kindest, smartest, and vi most generous friends I’ve had the pleasure to make in my life. Truly, whenever I feel like an idiot I think, “Noah would never be friends with an idiot. I must still be doing ok.” Many thanks to you and Heidi for handing over your guest room multiple times, introducing me to new cheese, and many delicious meals. Anyone can excel on paper, but not everyone can make a farm kid from Southern Illinois feel like they have what it takes to get a PhD from the University of Chicago. I am endlessly grateful that you lit this spark in me. Merci beaucoup. The Comedic Relief and Pizza-Support Dissertation Badge goes to Jack Pochop. You very kindly made food appear in our kitchen and on plates when I didn’t leave the house for two months to write and slowly drive myself crazy. Thank you for good tv, strange adventures, lots of snacks, and loving me even when I’m wearing cut-off sweatpants. Love so much. To my incredible (and incredibly patient) parents. The three of us earned this PhD together. Thank you for feeding me during stats exams and my special field exam, helping care for my dog, and patiently listening while not knowing what I was talking about most of the time. I give you permission to never read this dissertation. Dad, you once taught me that if I wanted my colleagues to believe I was busy, I should keep my desk messy and my brows furrowed. Now look, I’ve written an entire chapter on it. You are the original sociologist in this family and I owe any skills of observation I have to you. Finally, to the students, teachers, and staff at West City High School. I can’t name you here, but I am so thankful to have met and learned from all of you. You have cultivated a really special place and I’m lucky to have been an honorary student for two years. Thank you for trusting me to tell your stories and giving my research a home. Warriors on three. vii ABSTRACT Technology devices are increasingly being added by schools as academic resources for students and teachers. These devices are often added with an eye to increasing access and leveling the playing field in terms of digital access. This access is considered by schools to be a competitive advantage, often impacting school rankings and school report card scores.