Technology that has been used recently to lock cell phones away from ticketholders at concerts, will soon be making its way into the classrooms in one Western New York school district.

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If you have seen Jack White, of The White Stripes fame, in concert anytime over the last few years, there is a good chance that your concert experience was different than any other time in this century.  The reason being is that Mr. White wanted his concerts to be a 'phone-free' experience. How was this accomplished?  He employed the technology of a company called Yondr.

I experienced the Yondr pouch at the Jack White show at ArtPark a few years back.  It's a pretty simple process. You go to the Yondr booth.  They give you a pouch.  You put your phone inside of it and can leave the ringer and vibration on.  You lock it on a little machine that looks like the ones that remove the tags from expensive jeans at a retail store, and then you proceed into the show with your phone locked away.  If you need to access your phone, you go back to the Yondr booth, use the machine to open the pouch, and you're back in business.

I will say, I kind of enjoyed watching the show phone free.  It took a minute to get used to not taking it out to snap a photo or video.  But in the end, I enjoyed the show in the moment and was able to recreate it from memory.

Jack White @ ArtPark
Jack White @ ArtPark
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The technology has been adopted at more and more shows recently.  Dave Chapelle is one of the latest to want a 'phone-free' environment.

Soon, children in one Western New York School district will be experiencing a phone-free classroom.  The Rochester suburb of Greece's school board of education passed a new measure on Tuesday that will require students to stash their phones away during class.

The new policy will affect students in grades 6 through 12, as they will have to put their phones into one of the Yondr pouches each morning before the school bell rings.  School staff members will be able to open the pouches for students by using the Yondr magnetic lock pictured above.

According to info on Yondr's website, the technology has been used in schools since 2014, and they provide representatives to work with the schools during a "foundation year" so they are properly trained in the process of using the technology.

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