this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Canadian schools are experimenting with cellphone bans, but some parents say the devices are lifelines (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I meant harm in that it affects "one or a few students" rather than affecting "practically all students."

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

school is place to learn 2 things:

  • proper social interaction and becoming a responsible adult.
  • essential knowledge and skills before you branch out and find your thing to earn your own meals.

And IMO, the first point is way more important than the second. Let's see the implication by breaking down the proposed ban.

From the anti-bullying side:

  • deterrent tool is taken away
  • bully now have a "safe" grey area to do their thing and become he says/she says.
  • teachers or admins could not keep eyes on everyone, and some of them don't care if there are no bodily harms happened.
  • you know how much teens will listen to what adults said, even with laid out consequences.

From the learning, focus during instructional time:

  • I grew up without any gadgets(45yo) so no gameboy until I was at high school. Everyone still found ways to distract themselves from boring classes.
  • for schools without student chromebook/laptop/tablet, you lose a big chunk of diversity in "asking questions" or "find alternatives". aka, I feel teacher said something off, how do I find something to support my talking point or argument? Fact checking, math checking, etc.
  • The guys that are not interested in your material and have nothing to distract themselves with will just stare at something they interested in or day dreaming stuff. It will not help average score or engagement.

For engagement, from my old self and what my friends here from different background/countries/age bracket discuss their past, the one common thing is fun knowledgeable teacher and how enjoyable their class was last life time long. It shapes their understanding, how they engage other people or topics involving different areas. kids and teens are like herds of fun chasing animal, if even half of your class is having fun and discuss the materials and exchanging questions etc, the rest will follow cause they don't want to be "left out".

In short, if a teen can learn how to calculate DPS and build sets for their favorite game but fails the math about probability and expected value, the teacher is doing something wrong.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Again, your old self, and mine for that matter, didn't have the constant, always-on global communications device in your pocket with precision-engineered addiction algorithms frying your dopamine receptors. Yes, I'm going to boomer out here and say that ShitTok and their ilk are a scourge on youth and on society as a whole. The predictive promotional algorithm, flashy multimedia content, and, let's be honest, what amounts of soft porn in many cases, absolutely lays waste to attention spans and studious pursuits β€” doubly so in young, fertile minds. No teacher, no matter how good they are, can compete with that.

I can't link to it right now for obvious reasons, but there was a post a little while ago on /r/teachers from an experienced educator lamenting on how the behaviour of students has degraded dramatically in just the last few years. They not only lack respect for their teachers, they're actively disrespectful and sometimes flat-out violent towards educators and staff (particularly when their dopamine pumps are confiscated), and willfully destructive. Students lash out, destroy expensive equipment for fun, and are just downright ineducable.

I may be mixing my sources right now, I believe this was from a corresponding YouTube video that was linked in the post or comments, but the concluding notion I was left with is that there's an epidemic of emotional dysregulation among youth, induced by combination of poor parenting, lack of effective authority, and β€” the big one β€” smartphone addiction. The sentiment that lingers in my head: kids today are no longer interested in learning, they're only interested in how they can be entertained in the next five minutes.

I think there could be an agreeable balance where students are expected to leave their devices out of sight and on mute during instructional and recess periods. This could be a teaching tool for them to learn about the common courtesy of not being disruptive in settings where attentiveness and other activities are expected and appropriate. Or, really, they could just leave their phones in their lockers. We survived just fine without them at all.