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France bans smartphone use in schools

theverge.com

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Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#61

Post by skate22 »

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…

In college if i was goofing off on my phone during lecture I would likely pay for it on an exam.

You could try silently writing down which days you saw a student on their phone & which days you taught the specific subject material.

Then when students get it wrong on a test that you grade you can add a comment along the lines of "this was covered on day X when you were on your phone"

You would also then have a nice report for parent student meetings, and the parents can do the enforcing

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#62

Post by Yoric »

skate22 wrote: post #61
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…

In college if i was goofing off on my phone during lecture I would likely pay for it on an exam. You could try silently writing down which days you saw a student on their phone & which days you taught the specific subject material. Then when students get it wrong on a test that you grade you can add a comment along the lines of "this was covered on day X when you were on your phone" You would also then have a nice re…

> Then when students get it wrong on a test that you grade you can add a comment along the lines of "this was covered on day X when you were on your phone"

In my experience, by the time you realized you failed the exam, it's often too late to start learning all the things you didn't think you needed to learn.

Which is also one of the reasons for which I hated exams as a teacher.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#64

Post by truncj »

cube2222 wrote: post #56

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 o…

This sounds like a persuasive essay just lists facts without researching the benefit/detriment of each.

Taking a picture of a whiteboard is not the same as writing/typing notes.. and no, teacher's don't have the luxury of failing kids due to ignoring phone rules (unfortunately).

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#66

Post by azhenley »

cube2222 wrote: post #56

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 o…

Phones weren't allowed in my high school 10 years ago. Everyone still used them. They were huge distractions to students and also to teachers since they spent a lot of time policing. Teachers were not allowed to give you an F for having it, they would just take it and give you in-school suspension. Talking in class was much easier for a teacher to police than being on your phone. We got very good at hiding it. I held my phone by using the back of my knee, bending my leg to pinch the phone in place, then typing a text or Google search until I needed to look.

No one was using them for educational purposes.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#68

Post by andai »

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)

Re: sugar in schools: I am currently trying to break a sugar addiction and having more trouble than I had coming off several types of addictive drugs.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#69

Post by yardie »

Yoric wrote: post #5

To be clear: phones have been banned in most French schools for years, but faculty had no legal authorization to actually touch the phone or look at it to ensure that it was off. I haven't read the actual text of the law, but I believe that it gives faculty the authorization to do just that.

I guess this is different for private and religious schools. Our son's catholic school had no problem confiscating phones, 3DS's, or card games. To take them home them and the parent would need to pick it up from the headmaster's office.
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