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France bans smartphone use in schools

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Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#141

Post by peterwwillis »

gonehome wrote: post #140
peterwwillis wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not being able to use the phone in the hallway or between classes I was confused about some of these, like a teacher literally posted at the bathroom door and would only let X kids in at a time, and time them. Turns out it's because a few bad kids take advantage and do stupid shit, so they have to impose draconian policies. The 'no phone in hallway' thing was probably half to get kids into class on time, and half t…

I suspect you're right that they had some reason behind it they never discussed with us (and couldn't provide when asked), but it's not very effective (drug deals and sexting still happen anyway) - meanwhile I felt like they had no respect for us and so I had little for them as a result. I think to some extent people rise to the standard expected of them - if you don't respect kids at all and have draconian rules tha…

I feel the same. Unfortunately, the teachers are told what to do by the principal, and the principal is told what to do by the parents and the school board, and both of those groups are comprised mostly of total jackasses.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#142

Post by white-flame »

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…

None of that is relevant to active classroom learning when the teacher needs the class's attention (except the pictures, but I agree with peer posts about that). Those are fine during study & homework, though.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#144

Post by izacus »

tomjen3 wrote: post #105
bytematic wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under 15? Not really, can use purely offline sources for that generic material. Good skill as well. Still should have a basic computing class though, perhaps wrapped into a library class.

In my experience all printed material is incomplete, obsolete, or one-sided and frequently all three. That is not to talk about materials that can't be encoded as text, such as instructions and how-tos for whatever the French version of shop-class is. You would propose that students be taught such subjects as the French revolution, based on what materials are available in the school library? How can you even ethicall…

I very much doubt the historical consensus about French revolution changed in last 1-4 years since last high school history books were updated and printed.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#146

Post by izacus »

Demoneeri wrote: post #143

Phones are a distraction to an institution that refuses to evolve. We don't work the same way, we don't entertain the same way but for some reasons we teach the same way as a 100 years ago...

Who is this "we"? Are you talking for all hundreds of thousands of schools of the world? All schools of France? Who are you speaking for?

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#147

Post by athenot »

jonbaer wrote: post #15

If you can have "airplane mode" you can surely come up with some type of "school mode" (apps locked and calls in/out to certain specific numbers). Also nothing in the article re: smartwatches.

I think that could be done today with mobile management device profiles. Of course that would require quite a bit of IT infrastructure, which means money, and that is a tight resource in schools so probaby not feasible.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#148

Post by flying_kangaroo »

vorpalhex wrote: post #47
mercwear wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be looking at this through the lens of best case scenario. These are kids, many if all of them are probably mid puberty. The phones are not being used to take notes. They are playing fortnight, doing whatever replaced texting at this point, and generally just ignoring the lesson.

Those kids and their newspapers! I bet all they are ever going to do is read the news and not focus on the lesson. Can't they read that muck-racking when they get home? It's going to rot their brains! Don't even get me started on that overtly sexual and disgusting ballroom dancing!

"Back in your day," were you allowed to just pull out a newspaper in the middle of class and read it? I find that doubtful.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#149

Post by HIPisTheAnswer »

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…

No teachers ever taught me as fast as a computer can today. State school are an anachronism.

Re: France bans smartphone use in schools

#150

Post by HIPisTheAnswer »

djaychela wrote: post #76
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…

AS someone who was a teacher at A-level (age 16-18) in the UK for 17 years until last year.... I think you may be right in the best case scenario, but my experience is that the number of pupils who use smartphones (or the wider internet) as such is vanishingly small. Most people don't have the mental discipline to use it for the amazing academic tool it could be, and the bright, shiny things of social media etc fritt…

So the smart ones have to suffer for the students that dont want to learn; so lets just force them to not use tools to learn more efficiently. Hammer the nail that sticks out. We shall all be equally ignorant. Viva el socialismo!
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