After years of optimism, the wind has been rotated in the way in which Spanish educational managers observe the role of digital devices in teaching. The community of Madrid on Wednesday has announced a general veto from September to the use of screens, both in class and to do their homeworkin the phases of the child and primary (up to 12 years). But Murcia has already limited this course to the second primary cycle. The Ministry of Youth and Childhood published in December a relationship of experts that proposes Exclude individual devices in children and give priority to the primary teaching analogue. And the Catalonia established in February a commission made up of a hundred specialists of different branches To make guidelines that will most likely lead to establish restrictions. “At the beginning, we usually receive the changes with a little enthusiasm. But when in time we see that they brought some good things, others not so good, and others directly, the decision is made to regular”, summarizes Màrius Martínez, which was deceive of the faculty of educational sciences of the autonomous university of Barcelona and coordinates the expert committee created by Generalitat.
In the commission created by the Catalan Education Department, which will present its final opinion in June, people with very different profiles participate; By the representatives of the Association of Directors of the educational centers and federations of families, pediatricians, pedagogues, psychologists, neuroscientists, police and IT security experts. One of the main topics of the exceptionally unanimous criticisms that rained to the Madrid manager this Thursday for his announcement was the absence of a dialogue with the educational community and a depth debate before adopting a very acute decision.
In opposition to what is announced by the government chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, very different sign organizations have been reached. From the commissions of workers to CSIF, through Anpe. And by the great employers of Education Concerted, Catholic and CCE schools, to the Federation of Families of the Public School, the FAPA GINER DE LOS Ríos. Even the association of private schools, Cicae, which will not affect the decree prepared by the regional executive because it is addressed only to the centers financed with public funds, but which worries the image that the rule will project on technology applied to education, has joined the criticisms, qualifying as “interference in the autonomy of the educational centers” and “configuration in the modernization of the education system”. The Minister of Education of Madrid, Emilio Vician, has been reaffirmed, on the other hand, on his plan, which plans to limit the use of digital devices in schools to those who are for shared use (like a digital commission) and only for an hour weekly between the second cycle and the 2nd elementary school, an hour and a half in 3rd and 4th and two hours in the 5th and 6th. The measure can be delayed up to the 2026-2027 course in those centers whose educational project now includes the use of individual devices.
His arguments are similar to those who exercise Víctor Marín, Minister of Education of Murcia, where the restriction of the use of individual devices reaches up to the fourth grade in instrumental, linguistic and mathematical areas. “Numerous neuroscientific studies highlight that handwriting and work with analog resources at an early age improve the cognitive performance of the students, keeping the information better and improving the understanding of the basic concepts for learning, such as the recognition of words, the understanding of reading, the written expression, the basic mathematical operations and the resolution of the problems”, says Marín, which also adds the measure ” the age of digital devices to reduce dependence and dependence on technology.
The more or less intense limitation of the use of technological devices, in particular individuals such as tablets and computers, advances shortly after the prohibition of the use of cell phones by students in schools and institutes. Andreas Schleicher, creator of the Pisa report, indicated a few days ago in an article published in this newspaper for the use of smartphones, And more generally to “high consumption of digital content”, as one of the factors that seem to be behind the decline of performance of students in many countries. “Digital distraction is not only an inconvenience, but it seems to have a tangible association with the results of learning,” says Schleicher.
The convenience of limiting and in that case how and to what extent, the use of technology in education generates discrepant positions in many groups. The president of the FAPA Giner de Los Ríos, Mari Carmen Morillas, criticized the announcement of the Madrid executive on the subject according to which the educational system “must be updated, there are realities that should not be ignored as digital devices”, while they support “working on its responsible and adequate use”. At the same time, many families with children in children, primary and secondary who live at home the tension of limiting the use they make cell phones, tablets or computers have long denounced the duties that require their use make their surveillance even more difficult.
“They contribute to greater distraction”
“They contribute to greater distraction. And allow bridges to other uses, such as social networks, video games, pornography and other digital content whose excessive consumption is associated with feelings of disconnection of reality, more aggression, dependence behaviors and other disorders related to mental health”, “ Diego Hidalgo, spokesperson for an off -scuola school, one of the platforms that emerged in the States of Spain To claim the educational restriction of the screens. Hidalgo also warns problems related to privacy generated by the tools used in many schools. “We know that there are platforms that put young people at risk without offering sufficient guarantees and that allow a profile of minors by technological companies”.
María del Mar Sánchez, professor of teaching and school organization at the University of Murcia, the regrets, on the other hand, that the debate has quickly derived the prohibitions without being stopped in how technology should be used at school: “I don’t see that it is talking about what is done with those screens, which is the key.” Sanchez also warns that veto like Madrid or Murcia can expand the gap into digital competitions between rich and poor. “There are boys and girls who will not receive an accompaniment in digital education at home, due to the ignorance of families or for anything. And the school, in their aspect of social justice, is the place where they can learn to make good use of technology.”
