France bans smartphone use in schools • Hacker News Board

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#81

Post by thatfrenchguy » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 4:25 PM UTC

andai wrote: post #68

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.

Sugar is basically banned in french schools though.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#82

Post by cube2222 » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 4:27 PM UTC

TremendousJudge wrote: post #72

truncj wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

there are few things as useless as taking a picture of the whiteboard

Your mileage may vary. Sometimes I like to write everything down, number by number, symbol by symbol, but oftentimes I prefer to talk to the teacher about what he's writing to understand it better but keep it for future reference.

Writing down aids memory, but not understanding in my experience.

In complex topics like discrete mathematics it's been a lifesaver to me.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#83

Post by cube2222 » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

jacknews wrote: post #75

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…

In European schools, students are generally not graded by the teacher durectly, but through tests (though the teachers produce reports to parents). Thus, the option for the teacher to dole out an F to phone (ab)users is not available. Thankfully. Personally I think the American system whereby your grades are dictated by your teacher is quite vulnerable to all kinds of issues, but maybe I misunderstand that system.

I live in Europe. In Poland specifically.

I do not mean a final note, just a standard one. Like you may get for a test or homework.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#84

Post by berbec » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #73

TeMPOraL wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Obviously you have the special truth from the only true source, and all news media is fake except for the ones who hawk gold pills and testosterone boosters - they know how it really is.

The news can do better, I'm sure we can all agree, but let's not go over the top on either side. I doubt GP is QAnon and doubt all news media makes brain juice drip out of your ears.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#85

Post by berbec » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

mercwear wrote: post #12

Oh how the times have changed! I graduated from high school over 18 years ago and ANY cell phone was confiscated and you had to go see the principal to get it back.

I remember many trips to the office to get my pager back

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#86

Post by Daishiman » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

weliketocode wrote: post #51

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…

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

Boredom is a fact of life, and learning to accept it without forcing yourself to depend on a smartphone is an underrated skill.

> Any widespread banning of freedoms or ignorance of new technologies will have outsized negative consequences.

This argument does not really apply completely to children. And it is not ignorance; they're free to use their phones as they please, after class is done.

I agree with many posters here: phones have been designed explicitly to rob you of your attention span. The amount of willpower and self understanding to deal with that healthily is far more than what most children can muster.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#87

Post by isoskeles » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 4:30 PM UTC

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…

This is petty and time-consuming.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#88

Post by andai » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

berbec wrote: post #80

malnourish wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wondered about this: How much is that a problem with letting go of sugar, and how much is it finding things that don't have sugar in them?

When I quit drinking, (1L vodka/day for years cold turkey), I craved sugar like nothing else in the world. If removing sugar from your diet is anything like getting sober, I feel GP's pain.

This is interesting. I did some quick googling, heavy drinking interferes with insulin, maintenance of blood sugar levels.

> Frequent heavy drinkers can wipe out their energy storage in a few hours.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/312918.php

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#89

Post by michaelmrose » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 4:52 PM UTC

chpmrc wrote: post #9

Typical prohibitionist mindset. Lots of people use X, we don't like X, we ban X instead of understanding how to properly and moderately integrate X into our lives. Smartphones and tablets are GREAT learning devices. If we keep blaming the ineptitude of teachers on devices the quality of education will never progress. EDIT: part of the education process is to teach kids how to use and not abuse these devices and when…

Teachers are there to teach you math science etc not how to use your cell phone responsibility that lesson falls on your parents.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#90

Post by noobermin » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 4:53 PM UTC

I will be supportive of this when adults decide to ban cellphones in cars when in the driver's seat. Studies show driver's even with handless systems are significantly more likely to get into car crashes.

If you support curtailing young people's cell phone use but don't support curtailing the use by adults which has proven to lead to traffic fatalities I'd have to ask you why.