Yolanda Cardenas, director of the institute Montserrat Roig from Sant Andreu de la Barca, He is clear: “It is the best decision we have made in years.” In his case, as in all secondary schools that have taken measures to prohibit the use of mobile phones in their facilities, the decision to ban the devices was long meditated and approved by school board. “We thought it would be difficult, but it has gone better than we expected,” explains the director, who highlights previous awareness work both with the teachers – who cannot carry it either – and with the student body. The most positive thing about his assessment – shared by many other colleagues who have made a similar decision – is that The patio is once again a space where laughter, games and conversations can be heard. face to face and, in addition, permanent interruptions in class and incidents linked to social networks have plummeted. At least during school hours.
The centers, which have applied the veto due to the inability to manage the classroom, do not give up digital education and demand the involvement of families
According to figures made public last week by the Department of Education, in the third quarter of last year [cuando se realizó la encuesta]53% of Catalan educational centers had regulated the use of mobile phones in their Center Operating Standards (NOFC). A regulation that next year all schools and institutes will have to have following the regulatory framework which these days is being debated in different extraordinary sessions of the School Council of Catalonia. Some changes in school that come in parallel to the mobilization by families to reduce the social pressure that leads to the fact that, today, 12 years old is considered the “normal” age to access the first smartphone.
The institutes demand that the Government regulate the use of mobile phones and not leave it to the discretion of each center
“The worst thing about managing wasThe hours between class and class, the times when they were alone in the classroom, without a teacher. The fact that they could have a cell phone caused us many more problems than benefits, since they took advantage of it to make videos that they posted on the networks and it was quite a suffering –Cárdenas remembers–. If pedagogy is not done at homeit costs after the students, who are minors“, make good use of it.” The director alludes to problems as diverse as they are widespread. For example, recording students or teachers without your consent and share it on networks; chat in the classroom; make TikTok direct from the same desk; interrupt the class with the sound of an audio that goes off accidentally, or even ask to go to the bathroom and take forever to return.
flexible measurement
“We are happy, the measure is working and, if there is a teacher who needs it in a subject, they send an email to let them know that that day their students will take their cell phones to do some activity and there is no problem,” concludes the director of Montserrat Roig.
Alex Salleras He is director of the Pla Marcell institute, in Cardedeu, a town whose schools were declared at the beginning of this year ‘mobile free’. And although his assessment is very positive, the teacher is a bit less optimistic.
“Fight a giant”
“Ours is a exceptional measure. What is needed is regulation by Health,” says Salleras, who admits that, in his case, the decision was made to ban the smartphone because a time had come in which classroom management had become impossible. “They came to school with many hours of screen time; in primary school, families have been referring to screen distraction and free hours in the evenings and weekends; it was fighting a giant“admits the director of Pla Marcell [centro que siempre había sido ‘promóviles’]convinced that what needs to be done is accompany them. “As a society something more than a regulatory framework of the Department of Education is necessary“insists the teacher, who claims to have more questions than answers.
Banning mobile phones at school is an easy measure to implement, the complicated thing is that there is management by families outside the center
Director of the Pla Marcell Institute
“There is a curriculum that is being deployed that collects thedigital competence as a competence to work on and achieve. And digital skills are computers, but also mobile. The thing is: how do we do it? At what point do we have to start giving tools? Right now we saw ourselves incapable, with the weight that social networks have in the lives of young people, to be able to work on it. Before the pandemic, yes, but After confinement there was a change“he emphasizes.
The concern of salleras It’s what happens beyond the school walls. “Banning the cell phone in the institute is a measure easy to implementthe complicated thing is that there be management by families outside the center“, considers Salleras, in whose center, before the pandemic, The students could have the phone on the table, since it was another work tool.
a new world
Since they banned mobile phones – after verifying that the risks they implied had eaten up all the ground to the opportunities they offered – they have seen how young people “are discovering other ways to occupy spaces, to participate”. The yards are noisier, the kids are moving. They are present. An observation shared by all the centers that have prohibited its use during recess hours (only 12% of the institutes that already regulate the use of smartphones allow it to be consulted in the playground).
When you ask the students, the answer is the same. At their young age, they are well aware that the mobile is stronger than them and that it is very difficult to concentrate in class if you know that you have a pending notification; and that when a smartphone enters the scene, games and face-to-face socialization disappear. In the end, they also recognize themselves as lucky have ‘mobile-free’ spaces in which to relate differently.
“A change of chip”
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“The young people have made a chip change“, agree teachers from several centers that in recent times have put a limit on the use of mobile phones. They also highlight that there are less digital conflicts“although harassed people continue to be harassed“, says Salleras. And they agree on something else: “The key to the possible success of this parenthesis without mobile phones is the families“. He is very clear Marta Canodirector of the iMaria Espinalt Institute of Poblenoua neighborhood where the ‘Mobile Phone Free Adolescence’ movement was born.
The regulations of this center consist of confiscating cell phones and depositing them in a small locked box in the concierge until the day ends. If they reoffend three times, they must leave them in the center for a whole week, from the time they arrive to the time they leave. “And it’s working. Today there were not too many cell phonesfor example, in the little box, while at the beginning there were many,” says Caño, who has offered to go as director to the next afa meeting to take advantage of the buzz and row together. “Give them resources to carry out this accompaniment with the mobile phone or perhaps organize some consensual talk,” he points out. “We must establish complicities to improve students’ use of mobile phoneswhich is what we all want.”