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France bans smartphone use in schools

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Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#51

Post by weliketocode »

Like much of education policy, this seems to help some at the expense of harming others.

For the intelligent & motivated, there will be unnecessary boredom during downtime/study hall, potential hatred for learning/school, and other negative effects.

For the lackluster students, this policy will help some pay attention to class, learn lessons, and complete work.

In general, however, I'd have to say I'm against it. Any widespread banning of freedoms or ignorance of new technologies will have outsized negative consequences.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#53

Post by sp332 »

bytematic wrote: post #40
sp332 wrote: post #29

There's more to life than homework, even when you're in school. If I have my work done and want to read Slashdot or Ars Technica, or if I'm between classes and want to check the news, that's really not something that should be banned at the national level.

Under the age of 15?

That's halfway through highschool. I picked actual examples of sites I visited in highschool. I also played video games and learned how to hack the terminal server (a bit). But generally not in the middle of a lecture.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#54

Post by mLuby »

WorkLifeBalance wrote: post #50
vorpalhex wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't need to read the news every day As someone who votes, you should read the news on a very regular basis. Ideally that means reading a variety of news sources from a variety of political leanings.

Children don't get the vote either.

Probably why this law passed.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#55

Post by sp332 »

Pulcinella wrote: post #48
modells wrote: post #35

tl;dr psa for everyone: configure your phone for grayscale, least animation, vibrate-only and turn off most notifications. Smartphones are mental cocaine. Look around a city almost anywhere and most people are hunched over, staring at glowing glass and oblivious to almost everything... so much so the Dutch are putting crosswalk lights on the ground to keep people from walking into traffic while they’re getting their…

Yes. This is going to be very pop-pshychology, but I feel like smartphones are almost gambling-adjacent. Flashing lights and constant, small hits of dopamine.

Gotta ask, what kind of apps do you have on your phone? Flashing lights??

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#56

Post by cube2222 »

My thought as a University student and only a year ago - high school student:

Phones are a really great learning aid. There are also people who prefer to listen and participate more actively in lessons instead of writing down everything written on the whiteboard, with a smartphone they can just take a picture of the whiteboard.

Smartphones are the smallest thesaurus and translator you can get.

Smartphones can graph or take the derivative of any function you want. Wolfram alpha is a wonderful application.

Smartphones can quickly give you the life background of any author. Which helps immensely when analysing literature.

I've never experienced any real problems at school in relation to phones, as the teacher could just tell you to put it away. They have all the power to give you an F if you don't abide.

Admittedly, I've been both at a good highschool and a good University, but banning phones seems like not taking the time to show students how to use those effectively, and at the same time tries to hide the issue of people just not being interested in their lessons. And a lack of phone won't help you grab their interest. They'll switch to talking with each other additionally disturbing those who do want to pay attention.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#57

Post by TeMPOraL »

vorpalhex wrote: post #45
WorkLifeBalance wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to read the news every day, let alone every hour of the day. It's an addiction to the way news is currently produced. It's entirely reasonable to spend an evening a week reading up on tech news. It's not reasonable to have a compulsion to check the news whenever you have a down minute. I'm guilty of that myself, I'm currently writing this while a program compiles but I wouldn't wish this on a developin…

> You don't need to read the news every day As someone who votes, you should read the news on a very regular basis. Ideally that means reading a variety of news sources from a variety of political leanings.

> As someone who votes, you should read the news on a very regular basis. Ideally that means reading a variety of news sources from a variety of political leanings.

Why? To poison your mind with lies and misrepresentations of reality? To get distracted from important issues and spend lots of time following irrelevant dramas?

Mainstream news has negative informational value these days.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#58

Post by JeanMarcS »

jacknews wrote: post #3

Surprised they weren't banned already. How can a teacher droning about valence levels possibly compete with instagram feeds, and much more so for younger kids. Possibly even, aspects of smartphone use should be treated as a potential health risk, in the same ways as alcohol, tobacco, sugar, etc. (though not all of those are treated appropriately yet)

Actually there was already a law from 2010, which was stricter than the new one and, therefore, not applied in any school.

This one is lighter in the way that now, the phone can be used outside teaching hours (so between lessons) and on certain events (like museum visits or sports event during school time)

And as always in France, it’s a law above a law above another law, etc...

But French president Macron was very proud of it, so bravo...

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#59

Post by Shivetya »

jacknews wrote: post #3

Surprised they weren't banned already. How can a teacher droning about valence levels possibly compete with instagram feeds, and much more so for younger kids. Possibly even, aspects of smartphone use should be treated as a potential health risk, in the same ways as alcohol, tobacco, sugar, etc. (though not all of those are treated appropriately yet)

Well I am curious how much effort will be put into it. In the US local governments cannot even keep cell phones out of prisons, the State of Georgia was confiscating over ten thousand phones per year.

With regards to children in school we need to just start early and teach them that not using one in class is being courteous to their teachers and others while at the same time perhaps offering them more time between classes to check their phones. It is just a matter of showing them how it should be done and rewarding proper behavior.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#60

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Pulcinella wrote: post #43

My thoughts as a High School teacher: I have tried[1] to allow students to have their phones, teach them to use their phones responsibly, etc. It doesn’t work. They are banned in my class. I’m just a single teacher with basically no budget. I can’t compete with giant corporations that spend millions on design, UX, UI, etc. [1] Also, technically trying to teach kids to use their phones responsibly (or even generically…

It's not only competing with the addictive nature of smartphone apps, but competing with a child's interests too. Personal anecdote, but, going to school and learning stuff was more about discipline than enjoyment, that only came later on subjects in college I actually found interesting.

But I do support that method of education, and I also support a ban on smartphones by extension.

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