“Now we are starting to come out the other side of the pandemic, many parents are finding it hard to ratchet this increased screen time and social media usage back. As online exposure goes up, so do the risks that something will go wrong online.”
In a letter explaining her decision to parents, Jenny Allum, the principal of SCEGGS, said teachers were concerned about greater use of phones, “a seeming increase in students’ dependency on them, and just the plain distractibility of students, too”.
She told the Herald: “This seems particularly so after the COVID lockdowns, but perhaps [it is] for other reasons too.”
There is fiery debate in the education community over phone bans, with some teachers and principals arguing students must be taught to use their phones responsibly and bans will drive them underground, and others saying their presence in the classroom is difficult to police and having a major impact on learning.
However, there is a shortage of robust evidence on the issue.
Professor Pasi Sahlberg, from Southern Cross University, is opposed to bans. He surveyed students, parents and teachers as part of his Growing Up Digital project, and they have observed a decline in students’ readiness to learn at school. “They come to school tired, they can’t stay on task,” he said.
He said the solution should involve parents, schools and students working together, rather than a ban during school hours. “[A ban is like] aspirin for lung cancer,” he said. “It takes the pain away but it doesn’t address the root cause.”
Yet many teachers and parents support bans, saying they should be given the opportunity to focus on the subject at hand. One of them, Mark Clark, who has been teaching in public ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
