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French schoolchildren will have to leave their smartphones switched off or at home as the new academic year begins in September, after lawmakers voted for a ban on Monday.
The ban on smartphones, tablets and other connected devices, which will apply to pupils up to the age of 14-15, fulfils[sic] a campaign promise by centrist President Emmanuel Macron, while being derided as "cosmetic" by the opposition.
MPs of Macron's centrist LREM party and its allies gave final approval to the bill, while lawmakers on the left and right abstained from the vote, calling the law a "publicity stunt" that would change nothing.
Under the new law, schools may make exceptions for "pedagogical use", extra-curricular activities, or for disabled pupils.
Secondary schools for their part can decide individually whether to impose a partial or total ban on connected devices.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday August 02 2018, @08:58PM (1 child)
Well, I did say that I've taught in both secondary and tertiary (i.e., college/university) environments. I've sometimes taught in lecture halls with well over a hundred students. It's not really possible to police them for all electronic device usage unless you outright ban them and have an army of teaching assistants to enforce it.
(Sidenote: The culture around these devices in college environments seems to have changed radically just in the past 2-4 years. I've heard this from multiple people at multiple institutions, who have had to introduce clauses in their syllabuses banning use of electronic devices in class, when before it simply wasn't usually a problem. Laptops have obviously been around and often used by students in classes for a couple decades now, but the distraction factor of smartphones seems to be getting worse over time.)
As for secondary school, it's often a problem of constant vigilance. Kids often have phones in their pockets and sneak looks at them. Sure, they did the same with notes or tic-tac-toe, but the difference is that the phone is constantly updating and showing new content on its screen -- unlike the notes and tic-tac-toe which only show something new if another student interacts with a piece of paper... which tends to be more noticeable in class. Sneaking a look at a phone periodically isn't often as noticeable.
I'm not saying it's an entirely different problem, but given the ubiquity of electronic devices, it's an issue.
Again, I haven't looked into the details of this policy or how it will be implemented. But it may also be done for simple consistency's sake. I've taught at schools where even before smartphones existed, school policy said cell phones were never to be outside of bags (e.g., backpacks) when in a classroom or could risk confiscation. But if you don't have a policy like that across the board, what you tend to see are teachers who are more or less lenient, and student's behavior then shifts as they try to get away with things even in classes where the teacher maintains more discipline.
I personally don't think this is the sort of thing that should have a national government action policy, but is it potentially useful to have a consistent policy on where and when smartphones are allowed and how they are (or are not) allowed to be used? I'd say yes.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday August 02 2018, @09:00PM
(To clarify the last sentence, I meant consistent across a school or something... rather than dictated by government.)