Victoria takes mobile phones off kids at school

[stui magpie]

In case you haven't read it or seen it, the Vic state government has decided that all government school kids will have to leave their phone in a locker or some other safe place from start of school till end of school. No access during classes, recess or lunchtime.

The primary reason is allegedly to prevent cyber bullying, which is bullshit IMHO, as most of that happens outside school hours and why cyber bully someone when you can do it in person the old fashioned way?

Anyway, I'm a bit conflicted about this.

On one hand, I agree with the principle. So many people are seemingly addicted to their phones, forcing kids to do without them during school hours is good. When you leave school and get a job you can't spend all your working time checking your phone, you actually have to work (if you want to stay employed). It removes 1 distraction from getting them to pay attention in class but doesn't guarantee they will.

considering so much of school these days is done on PED's like laptops and tablets, all of which can be loaded with the same social media apps, it's hard to Police, but I still like the principle.

What I don't like is a state government doing it across the board. It's like micro level interference in people's lives, nanny state stuff if you like.

My kids are both in their late 20's and I had enough problems with them and phones at school, I'd hate to be raising kids now. My son mastered the art of pocket texting with the old Nokia 3310. He could pull the phone out, read a text when the teacher wasn't looking and type a response by feel with the phone and hand in his pants pocket,

Thoughts? Good idea? Bad idea?

us old farts survived at school (and life) without mobiles, if you had a problem you went to the office and they called a parent, mum had to wait til you got home to ask you how your day was (so you could sullenly reply, "Good"and stomp off) instead of messaging you constantly during class to check you were alive.

Here's an article that looks at the issue from an holistic perspective.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-26/ ... n/11248876

[think positive]

yeah i saw this, maybe not during breaks but certainly during class time they should be banned.

in saying that, when juniors best friend had an epileptic fit in the class room, Junior whipped out her phone and rung 000. but then the teacher should have been able to do that. My kids school already had the ban in place, you put it in your locker when you get to school and it stays there, i think you could check it on breaks but they couldnt have it in the playground.

long time coming IMO

[David]

Kind of mixed feelings here too. Agree that the stated objective is eyebrow-raising, but I guess it’s good to remove a distraction from the classroom (thoughI’m sure kids will still try to flout the rules where possible). I think it’s a bit dumb and draconian to ban them from breaks too (I’m sure lots of kids want to watch YouTube videos together, listen to music, arrange after-school catch-ups with friends, etc.), but it probably wouldn’t be enforceable otherwise. I guess we’ll see how long this lasts and whether it survives the inevitable backlash.

[Dark Beanie]

The red headed chick is glad that she won't have to put up with what she calls more bulltish as she is in year 12.

Her school already has a policy of no phones in class as do most schools. Phones are only allowed if the teacher decides it necessary for learning purposes and this is usually only in the senior levels (10-12).

The school has also implemented no technology areas of the school at breaks (including lunchtime) so kids can have technology down time. But already the school has received complaints from parents about it as their kids need to be studying or doing extra work during breaks!

And as always the Education dept, comes up with new policies with no back up ie. details on how schools are to implement and police this. Teachers have enough to do without having to spend time monitoring or confiscating phones.

While many parents say they support a ban, they are part of the issue as some feel they need to be able to contact their child at any time.

Its also naive to think that kids will not find way around this. They have iPads and laptops in class. It is easy for a kid to flick b/w pages on their device without a teacher seeing.

If you are seeking to reduce bullying, you need to educate kids. What happens when a kid leaves the school grounds and the school has no control?

An article from a year 12 at MacRob:

School phone ban is useless and counter-productive

"As a student enrolled in VCE at The Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School I have a personal stake in the new Victorian government law to ban phones in schools.

And while I agree that both cyber bullying and distraction levels in class are serious issues that need to be addressed, I disagree with the government's proposed policy action and think that it will be ineffective.

I have also had the opportunity to spend six weeks in a French school, late last year, and have seen how a ban like this affects teenagers.

In French schools, technology posed zero threat to the attention of students because laptops and computers were banned along with phones. French students do all their work on paper, they rely on books from the library to do research, and there is no Wi-Fi connection at all."

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/vict ... 521cx.html

[Skids]

I have also had the opportunity to spend six weeks in a French school, late last year, and have seen how a ban like this affects teenagers.

In French schools, technology posed zero threat to the attention of students because laptops and computers were banned along with phones. French students do all their work on paper, they rely on books from the library to do research, and there is no Wi-Fi connection at all."

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/vict ... 521cx.html

Wow, how devastating that must be. Relying on books and doing work on paper. Who'd have thought

Kelly reckons it just puts more back on the teachers who are going to have to police and enforce this (WA govt looking at it too). Kids will just bring them and be sneaky about it. You know a students bag is not allowed to be searched.

[stui magpie]

This part in the article interests me.

Banning technology from students will also seriously limit our ability to learn digital self-control. Every minute of our school day is already dictated to us by adults, making time management a difficult skill to learn.

If phones are not only banned in class but also in our recess and lunch times, we are not learning how to use our phones in moderation, and will find it even harder to learn to do so once we graduate and are given free rein.

This is especially problematic in younger kids entering the education system in 2020, who will never have the chance to build this skill.

Firstly, if you're starting VCE you better learn time management, quickly.

Secondly, who said you get free reign as an adult? Wait until every minute of your workday is controlled by an employer, granted depending on your job, but not many will be happy with you spending time on social media or internet shopping when you're supposed to be working.

I can see the point about recess and breaks, the argument for the ban there is that kids may actually have to talk to each other and/or be physically active mucking around, otherwise potentially every kid will spend all their break time glued to their phone catching up on what they've missed for the past 2 hours.

Dunno, I can see arguments on both sides.