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Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

theguardian.com

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Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

#241

Post by pixl97 »

derefr wrote: post #184
cubefox wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but presumably most school kids don't live in pretty centric locations.

Schools in Western countries have "catchment areas" — a Voronoi diagram, for each level of schooling, that clusters residences by which school is closest to them. If you're sending your child to public (rather than private) school in one of these countries, then your child is assigned to a school based on which catchment area your home falls into. You can't send your child to a school other than the closest one to yo…

USian here, my daughters high school will be over 9 miles away and crosses 2 major interstate exchanges. Google says it's a 3 hour walk. The school itself is in the middle of nowhere and pretty much demands that kids be driven or bussed to it.

Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

#242

Post by jacquesm »

cubefox wrote: post #144

There is a massive increase in teen depression since around 2012: https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/teen-d... This is totally unprecedented. It is likely that the addictive quality of smartphones and social media are the cause. They are replacing physical contacts with virtual ones. There is a serious argument to be made to outright ban teenagers from owning smartphones until the age of 16, simila…

COVID, Climate Change, War, reduced job prospects. Social media and smartphones certainly don't help but they're a side show compared to the rest.

There is a serious argument to be made outright ban smartphones not just for teenagers but for everybody that can't handle having a non-stop distraction device in their pocket. But that argument will fail because we tend to allow people to do stupid stuff as long as it doesn't affect others.

Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

#243

Post by jacquesm »

pixl97 wrote: post #241
derefr wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Schools in Western countries have "catchment areas" — a Voronoi diagram, for each level of schooling, that clusters residences by which school is closest to them. If you're sending your child to public (rather than private) school in one of these countries, then your child is assigned to a school based on which catchment area your home falls into. You can't send your child to a school other than the closest one to yo…

USian here, my daughters high school will be over 9 miles away and crosses 2 major interstate exchanges. Google says it's a 3 hour walk. The school itself is in the middle of nowhere and pretty much demands that kids be driven or bussed to it.

That's what you get when you design a country around vehicles. High school here in NL is a 3 km bike ride. In rural areas that can go up quite a bit but it's still doable by bike except for some of our smaller islands.

Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

#244

Post by TeaBrain »

dotnet00 wrote: post #138
nafey wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Outright bans on smartphones in schools are no different from the video game, TV screen time The distinction is that tvs and video games are indeed banned in school. Banning smart phone usage outright is different from banning smart phones in school.

That's not a meaningful argument, the excuse for having parents place absurd limits on screen time and video games was the same as with smartphones in schools, that they're distracting and addictive, would affect academic performance, and would affect kids in the classroom because they'd be talking about their TV shows and video games or thinking about watching/playing them during class. It only feels different to yo…

They are pointing out the more correct analogy. The analogy to banning smartphones in school, would be banning videogames and tv in school, not banning those things altogether. Teachers I've heard speak on the topic, largely seem to want to limit smartphones in class as they have observed student use of smartphones during class to interfere with their teaching and their students learning. This is the same reason why video games are banned in class. Not as you say due to students simply speaking about video games, but because students playing video games during class is distracting for the student playing the game, for other students, and for the teacher.

Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

#245

Post by pbjtime »

verve_rat wrote: post #64
bgribble wrote: post #42

My kid just graduated from a NYC high school that had a complete ban on phones in school. The kids checked in their phones at the front desk on the way in and got them back when leaving. It was by no means watertight -- many (most?) kids had a "burner" phone that was dead or broken or whatever that they turned in (because nobody would believe a highschooler who said they didn't have their phone with them lol) and the…

Did 12 year olds take the subway to school 20, 30 years ago? (Genuinely asking, never lived in a place with a subway, but took the bus all the time at that age.)

Absolutely. And the funny thing is, it was more dangerous then. It is an objective fact supported by all available data that there are fewer kidnappings today than ever before. But since s kidnapping in Topeka goes around the world in 30 seconds, people hear more about all kidnappings happening everywhere, and think they are happening more often.

Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

#246

Post by fomine3 »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #174
brigadier132 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My teacher would have ripped the gameboy out of my hand and confiscated it for the rest of the school year. Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today. Also, if your argument is "gameboy existed". People just did not use it as much. Today smartphone usage in class is rampant. Also gameboy games were not anywhere near as addicting as games and social media are today.

> Also gameboy games were not anywhere near as addicting as games and social media are today. Have you never played Tetris? Any Gameboy game where you have to level up (like Final Fantasy) will also be a severe temptation as you have something productive to do while the teacher yammers about stuff you either already know, has nothing to do with you (e.g. talking to another student), or don't care about (like really I…

Those games were so fun but there were less FOMO. FOMO is a part of a reason for social media addict.

Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

#247

Post by dmvdoug »

brigadier132 wrote: post #67
falcolas wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> playing video games in the middle of class. Laughs in GameBoy. Seriously, you have to be elder gen x or older to exist in a time where handheld consoles of some flavor were not available. And there’s always been other forms of entertainment, be it passing notes, talking, or daydreaming.

My teacher would have ripped the gameboy out of my hand and confiscated it for the rest of the school year. Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today. Also, if your argument is "gameboy existed". People just did not use it as much. Today smartphone usage in class is rampant. Also gameboy games were not anywhere near as addicting as games and social media are today.

> Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today.

No, but we can take the electronic device and log it into the office so that a parent has to come retrieve it. And if I happen to forget a couple of days and only manage to log it in on Friday so that they don’t get it over the weekend, well, I’m a forgetful chap.

That threat alone, not having a phone over the weekend eliminates 90% of phone issues in my classroom.

Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

#248

Post by dmvdoug »

eru wrote: post #157
brigadier132 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The school system and public institutions need to protect them and give them back this power.

If they get this power, why do we need the global ban, then?

Because it’s an exhausting waste of my time to police cell phones on an individual basis. Of course, a lot of the teachers in my building require students to put their phones in a basket or in a numbered slot when they come into the room so they don’t even have to deal with it. If you have it with you in the room rather than depositing it like you should the teacher will take it and log it into the office, which means mommy or daddy has to come get little Johnny’s phone on Tuesday or Thursday between 7 and 8 am.

Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

#249

Post by cubefox »

callalex wrote: post #235
cubefox wrote: post #144

There is a massive increase in teen depression since around 2012: https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/teen-d... This is totally unprecedented. It is likely that the addictive quality of smartphones and social media are the cause. They are replacing physical contacts with virtual ones. There is a serious argument to be made to outright ban teenagers from owning smartphones until the age of 16, simila…

Climate change and the anxiety it causes is another factor to be considered here.

Climate change didn't became known just 10 years ago, so I don't think this had an impact.

Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

#250

Post by callalex »

cubefox wrote: post #249
callalex wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Climate change and the anxiety it causes is another factor to be considered here.

Climate change didn't became known just 10 years ago, so I don't think this had an impact.

Having grown up one generation previous, in the era of Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” etc. there used to be a real sense of hope and optimism that we would collectively be able to put the work in to solve the issue before it became untenable. A generation later this optimism is much less common because the evidence has mounted that we are not capable of making the changes necessary.
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