A recently launched report by UNESCO has called for ban on smartphones in schools across the world.
The report warns against the overuse of technology like smartphones and computers in education, saying that the benefits they bring disappear when they’re used in excess or without the guidance of a teacher.
Some countries are already thinking along the same lines. France introduced the preventive measure in 2018. In Italy, the teachers collect the smartphones from the students at the start of the day. Finland and the Netherlands are going to introduce the ban in 2024.
The UNESCO press release issued on 27 July 2023 says, “The digital revolution holds immeasurable potential but, just as warnings have been voiced for how it should be regulated in society, similar attention must be paid to the way it is used in education. Its use must be for enhanced learning experiences and for the well-being of students and teachers, not to their detriment. Keep the needs of the learner first and support teachers. Online connections are no substitute for human interaction.”
Global education monitoring report, 2023: technology in education: a tool on whose terms?
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385723
It is worth going through this report because it covers a number of related areas such as evaluation of smart technologies in the educational establishments, the risk of unequal distribution of knowledge across societies, the questions about scalability of tech solutions and their sustainability in terms of cost and variables. /// nCa, 27 July 2023
#UNESCO, #children, #school, #education, #digital_revolution, #smartphone