Paula Marquez |
Madrid (EFE).- Teaching to use the mobile with sense and responsibility instead of prohibiting it in Spanish classrooms is the commitment of teachers, families and pedagogues, who do not share the decision of the Dutch Government to eliminate it from classes by alleging that ” it is distracting and makes students perform worse.”
As of January 1st, students should not bring mobile phones, tablets or smartwatches into classrooms in schools in the Netherlands, unless there is a special reason to do so.
This is a national directive, but not a ban through legislation, so it is up to the schools themselves to agree the exact rules with the teachers, parents and students at each school.
In statements to EFE, the vice president of the National Association of Teaching Professionals, Sonia García, has opted to establish “basic notions” and insist to students that the misuse of mobile phones can reduce academic performance or promote cyberbullying. .
He has proposed turning off the mobile at times when you have to attend in class, when working in a group or during recess.
Current use of technology in the classroom
“Technologies surround us and for this reason the student has to learn to work on digital skills”, says Juana María Ortega, professor and expert in educational technology from the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences of the University of Jaén.
In this sense, he explains that the ultimate goal of education is to train a person so that they can function in society in an integral way, and details that technology is currently widely used both in Primary and Secondary with the support of tablets. .
Advantages of digital teaching
The ease of access, management and exchange of information are some of the advantages that Ortega sees in mobile phones compared to traditional educational materials, as well as the possibility of working collaboratively among colleagues.
“The mobile phone is one more didactic resource,” highlights the doctor in Pedagogy and expert in digital competence and media education, Alba Torrego, while the teacher’s representative, Sonia García, assures that the digital versions of the books provided by publishers and mobile applications, among others, represent “profitable uses” of technologies.
Problems of the use of technologies
Despite the benefits that technology brings to the study, the pedagogue Torrego warns that various reports show that “socialization is different in children who use them and does not facilitate social skills.”
For this reason, he believes that young people should be “aware” so that they do not use their mobile phones when they interact with colleagues, friends and family.
For his part, Ortega refers to the problems of incorporating technology into the classroom, among which he cites new evaluation methods, preparing specific materials or being able to organize new ways of working.
Prepared teachers?
Technology has been in schools for ten years, so from ANPE, García ensures that teachers are well trained and used to it, although he demands that the implementation of technologies in education go hand in hand with the training of the staff.
The educational technology expert Ortega recalls that teachers are evaluated in digital competence, while detailing that their role has gone from being that of “holders of all knowledge” to that of “mediator between information and students.”
Families and digital devices
Despite the fact that the use of mobile phones can pose a “danger for concentration” in the studies of minors, the president of the Spanish Confederation of Student Parents’ Associations (CEAPA), María Capellán, does not understand “why The use of mobile phones in schools must be prohibited.
“What we have to do is teach them to use the mobile properly, with sense and responsibly,” he suggests, while recommending that parents consult the guides of the Spanish Agency for Data Protection to teach their children to handle themselves correctly in the digital world.