Four Years of Research Proves What a Teacher Knows in Five Minutes
October 22, 2024
Just a humanoid processing information related to online services and information access.
The write up “The Phone Ban Has Had a Big Impact on School Work.” No kidding. The article reports a study in Iceland after schools told students, “No mobiles.” The write up says:
A phone ban has been in place at Öldutún School since the beginning of 2019, and according to the principal, it has worked well. The school’s atmosphere and culture have changed for the better, and there is more peace in the classroom.
I assume “peace” means students sort of paying attention, not scrolling TikTok and firing off Snapchats of total coolness. (I imagine a nice looking codfish on the school cafeteria food line. But young people may have different ideas about what’s cool. But I’ve been to Iceland, and to some, fish are quite fetching.)
A typical classroom somewhere in Kentucky. Thanks, MSFT Copilot. The “new and improved version” is a struggle. But so are MSFT security and Windows updates. How is Sam AI-Man these days?
Unfortunately the school without mobiles has not been able to point to newly sprouted genius level performance since the 2019 ban. I am okay with the idea of peace in the classroom.
The write up points out:
It has been reported in Morgunblaðið that students who spend more time on smartphones are less interested in reading than those who use their phones little or not at all. The interest in reading is waning faster and faster as students spend more time on their smart devices. These are the results of research by Kristján Ketill Stefánsson, assistant professor of pedagogy at the University of Iceland’s Faculty of Education. The research is based on data from more than fifteen thousand students in grades 6 to 10 in 120 elementary schools across the country.
I noted this surprising statement:
Both students and parents have welcomed the phone ban, as it was prepared for a whole year in collaboration with the board of the student association, school council and parents, according to Víðisson.
Would this type of ban on mobiles in the classroom work in the expensive private schools in some cities? What about schools in what might be called less salubrious geographic areas? Iceland is one culture; rural Kentucky is another.
My reaction to the write up is positive. The conclusions seem obvious to me and no study was needed. My instincts are that mobile devices are not appropriate for any learning environment. That includes college classrooms and lecture rooms for continuing education credits. But I am a dinobaby. (I look like the little orange dinosaur. What do I know?)
Stephen E Arnold, October 22, 2024
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