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France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

theguardian.com

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Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#221

Post by zxd1098 »

devmunchies wrote: post #213
criddell wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my kids' school, they encourage appropriate cell phone use in the school. For example, if there is a homework assignment on the board, rather than wait for everybody to copy it down, kids are told to take a picture of the board. They also insist on the kids using some kind of calendar to track everything and most kids use their phone calendar. There's some kind of Twitter-like service that is used for teacher-stud…

> For example, if there is a homework assignment on the board, rather than wait for everybody to copy it down, kids are told to take a picture of the board just post the assignment online. Not a reason to allow phones in class.

At work, you’d take a picture of the whiteboard with your phone. It’s a valuable life skill.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#222

Post by zxd1098 »

exDM69 wrote: post #50
Montezuma_II wrote: post #25

I think this is a mainly positive move. Mobile phones are massive distractions to children, especially in a school context. When it comes to young children, I am skeptic to the use of digital technology in education in general. School should help incorporate good habits into a child's routine, such as reading books, and nailing reliance on phones into children is not something we want to be doing in schools.

Cyberbullying is another big motivator for banning mobile phones. Perhaps even bigger than the distraction aspect. It's also frustrating for teachers when bullying is happening online, outside of school hours but it still takes place between students in the classroom. It should not be the teacher's business but it obviously impacts schoolwork in the classroom. I think this is a smart move unless someone can show a st…

Right, protect kids from the world so they don’t know how to handle bullying as an adult.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#223

Post by 1_2__4 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #215

Jeez. I had not thought the Macron government to be so backwards. IMHO there are two issues at place: 1. teachers not adapting to new times. In ye olde days, teachers had the attention of the students basically guaranteed (as the only thing students could do instead of paying attention to the teacher was drawing messages on papers and passing them around). That frontal instruction is bullshit and should be a thing of…

LOL indeed. Your (poor) argument could be used to justify televisions running in the classroom 24x7 too, just to shake loose that awful "frontal instruction".

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#224

Post by noobermin »

germinalphrase wrote: post #153

TLDR: As a high school level teacher, this would be less of a problem if teachers had stronger enforcement powers. Since we often don't - I would strongly favor a ban. If students need a computer, we have them available all day, every day. As a high school level teacher, I appreciate the attitude that there are amazing opportunities for learning and skill development with computers. I agree with this wholeheartedly.…

This is such a luddite view and frankly almost a power tripping view. Have you thought that they are "addicted" to being social with their friends like normal teenagers are? It already is against policy in most places to have smart phones during class, why ban them during breaks?

It's during freaking breaks. How about let kids be kids for once and stop trying to grope into their personal lives! Why do you need to police their breaks too? How is this not a civil rights issue?

As millenials and gen xers age, they are forgetting they were kids once and are quickly becoming twice the son of hell authoritarians their parents were.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#225

Post by zxd1098 »

opportune wrote: post #106
Montezuma_II wrote: post #25

I think this is a mainly positive move. Mobile phones are massive distractions to children, especially in a school context. When it comes to young children, I am skeptic to the use of digital technology in education in general. School should help incorporate good habits into a child's routine, such as reading books, and nailing reliance on phones into children is not something we want to be doing in schools.

Digital technology has its place, but in its present form, it's too easy to get distracted. My nephews would probably spend 10x as much time looking up youtube videos and playing pay-to-win apps than they would googling things if they had access to their phones in class. I agree that in general the drive to "put a computer in every classroom" is absolutely moronic; in general, I think teachers don't adequately unders…

It seems like you’re hanging onto the old world a bit. Digital typewriter? These kids will be typing every day of their lives as adults. The cost of not using technology is higher than you think, and seems to be based in holding onto the past and protecting kids fro the world.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#226

Post by zxd1098 »

pixl97 wrote: post #154
d13 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If phones are providing children with a more stimulating experience than school, the schools themselves should improve their product, rather than banning the competition.

If pure sugar is providing children with more instant gratification, healthy food should improve their product by adding way more sugar and salt too! If heroin is providing adults with a better escape, real life should step up its game! Or, maybe we should teach our children a modicum of discipline.

Yeah, it’s called “Aiden! Don’t look at your phone while I’m talking. What did I just say about multiplication tables?!”

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#227

Post by craftyguy »

eigenschwarz wrote: post #210
craftyguy wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe my parents said their parents told them same thing about TVs, and their parents parents told them radios, and so on.

Again, same as above: do you watch TV or listen to radio in school unless the teacher introduces it as part of the learning process? It's not that everything about a smartphone is bad - just like not everything about TV is bad - it's the unfettered and ubiquitous distractions inherent in smartphones being used during school hours for uses aside from learning.

> Again, same as above: do you watch TV or listen to radio in school unless the teacher introduces it as part of the learning process?

I don't, because I'm not in school, but my SO - who is a grade school teacher - says that there are problems in the school with students watching off-topic videos (analogous to "TV") when they should be doing other work.

In any case, distractions will exist, and continue to exist, students will seek them out, and this will forever be a game of cat & mouse.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#228

Post by davidgh »

As a parent of three adolescents I enjoy the fact that I can reach my kids whenever and Find My Friends allows me to confirm that they made it to school safely on a snowy day, for example.

However.

I did some volunteer teaching for a couple of years at my son’s school. Interestingly, I didn’t seem to observe students reaching in and initiating engagement with their phone very often. It was almost always in response to the “buzz”. It was so clear. They are there taking notes, looking at you, or even just staring at the floor. And I would see the small “snap” bodily response that happens when the phone buzzes with whatever. And mentally they might as well have jumped up and walked straight out of class. They were gone. Not “half paying attention while looking at this thing” but completely transported to a different sphere.

Having every student disable all push notifications during class time would have solved nearly all the problems I witnessed. They developed “driving mode”, would sure be nice if they did an easy-to-access “class mode” where every notification of any type except a text or call from mom or dad was suppressed. Sure, some would refuse to enable class mode but with the students I taught, if I reminded at the beginning of class to turn it on, I suspect a fair amount of my students would have done it voluntarily.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#229

Post by Shivetya »

mschuster91 wrote: post #215

Jeez. I had not thought the Macron government to be so backwards. IMHO there are two issues at place: 1. teachers not adapting to new times. In ye olde days, teachers had the attention of the students basically guaranteed (as the only thing students could do instead of paying attention to the teacher was drawing messages on papers and passing them around). That frontal instruction is bullshit and should be a thing of…

with regards to point #1, not all students have access to such phones. the only solution to your point I see is to insure they all have them. teachers can not change unless all students can go along for the change, hence how do we remedy that?

teachers should not have to compete for a child's attention nor have to prevent a child from being a distraction to others in class.

I do think a total ban is ridiculous, play ground time and lunch time should be more than allowable use periods.

I don't recall point #2 being covered, perhaps that is elsewhere in French media that was not brought up and should have been.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#230

Post by hrktb »

eigenschwarz wrote: post #210
craftyguy wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe my parents said their parents told them same thing about TVs, and their parents parents told them radios, and so on.

Again, same as above: do you watch TV or listen to radio in school unless the teacher introduces it as part of the learning process? It's not that everything about a smartphone is bad - just like not everything about TV is bad - it's the unfettered and ubiquitous distractions inherent in smartphones being used during school hours for uses aside from learning.

> listen to radio in school

Yes, and it’s fairly easy to hide an earplug by adopting a leaning posture.

Also we read comics and books, and played games on our calculators, exchanged paper messages etc., though you would classify that as active distractions I guess.

It’s true that smartphones are a different kind of devices, but I’m not sure it’s such a big deal if we account for the number of hours everyday they will be spending using them formthe rest of their life. Might as well have them part of the equation from the start.

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