Smartphones should be banned from schools to tackle classroom disruption, improve learning and help protect children from cyberbullying, a UN report has recommended.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN’s education, science and culture agency, said there was evidence that excessive mobile phone use was linked to reduced educational performance and that high levels of screen time had a negative effect on children’s emotional stability.
It said its call for a smartphone ban sent a clear message that digital technology as a whole, including artificial intelligence, should always be subservient to a “human-centered vision” of education, and never supplant face-to-face interaction with teachers.
Photo: Pixabay 照片：Pixabay
UNESCO warned policymakers against an unthinking embrace of digital technology, arguing that its positive impact on learning outcomes and economic efficiency could be overstated, and new was not always better. “Not all change constitutes progress. Just because something can be done does not mean it should be done,” it concluded.
With more learning moving online, especially in universities, it urged policymakers not to neglect the “social dimension” of education where students receive face-to-face teaching. “Those urging increasing individualization may be missing the point of what education is about,” it said.
“The digital revolution holds immeasurable potential but, just as warnings have been voiced for how it should be regulated in society, similar attention must be paid to the way it is used in education,” said UNESCO’s director general, Audrey Azoulay.
Photo courtesy of Wu Wan-lin 照片：讀者吳宛霖提供
She added: “Its use must be for enhanced learning experiences and for the wellbeing of students and teachers, not to their detriment. Keep the needs of the learner first and support teachers. Online connections are no substitute for human interaction.”
UNESCO said in the report that countries needed to ensure they had clear objectives and principles in place to ensure digital technology in education was beneficial and avoided harm, both to individual students’ health, and more widely to democracy and human rights, for instance through invasion of privacy and stoking of online hatred.
Excessive or inappropriate student use of technology in the classroom and at home, whether smartphones, tablets or laptops, could be distracting, disruptive and result in a detrimental impact on learning, it said. It cited large-scale international assessment data that indicated a “negative link” between excessive use of digital technology and student performance.
Photo courtesy of North District Office, Tainan City 照片：台南市北區區公所提供
Although technology could potentially open up opportunities for learning for millions, the benefits were unequally spread, with many poorer people from around the world effectively excluded, it said. A digital educational infrastructure was expensive, and its environmental costs often underestimated.
There was little robust research to demonstrate digital technology inherently added value to education, UNESCO said in its 2023 Global Education Monitor report. Much of the evidence was funded by private education companies trying to sell digital learning products. Their growing influence on education policy around the world was “a cause for concern,” it added.
It accepted that online learning “stopped education melting down” when schools and universities closed during COVID-19 lockdowns. It estimated that more than a billion students globally moved to online learning during the pandemic — but added that millions of poorer students without Internet access were left out.
(The Guardian)
聯合國一份報告建議，應禁止在學校使用智慧型手機，以解決課堂混亂的問題、改善學習，並有助於保護兒童免受網路霸凌。
聯合國教科文組織（聯合國負責教育、科學與文化之機構）表示，有證據顯示，過度使用手機與成績下降有關，而且螢幕使用時間過長會對兒童的情緒穩定性產生負面影響。
它表示，呼籲禁用智慧型手機傳達出一個明確的訊息，即包括人工智慧在內的所有數位科技應始終服膺「以人為本的教育願景」，且永遠不能取代與教師的面對面互動。
聯合國教科文組織警告決策者不要輕率擁抱數位科技，並認為數位科技對學習成果與經濟效益的正面影響可能被誇大了，而且新的並不總是更好的。「並非所有的變化都會造成進步。某些事只因為做得到而去做，並不表示那就是應該做的」，它總結道。
隨著越來越多課程轉移到線上，尤其在大學，它敦促決策者不要忽視教育的「社會向度」，即學生接受面對面教學。報告稱：「那些敦促加強個人化的人可能沒抓住教育的重點」。
聯合國教科文組織總幹事奧德蕾‧阿祖萊表示：「數位革命的潛力不可限量，但正如對它在社會中應如何監管的警示，數位革命在教育中的使用方式也必須得到同樣的關注」。
她補充說：「它的使用必須是為了加強學習體驗以及師生福祉，而不是損害。我們應將學習者的需求放在首位，並支援教師。線上連繫無法替代人際互動」。
聯合國教科文組織在報告中表示，各國必須制定明確的目標及原則，以確保用於教育的數位科技對學生的健康以及更廣泛的民主與人權是有益的，並避免造成傷害（例如透過侵犯隱私並煽動網路仇恨）。
報告稱，學生在課堂和家裡過度或不恰當地使用科技產品，無論是智慧型手機、平板電腦或筆記型電腦，都可能分散注意力、造成干擾，並對學習造成不利影響。報告引用了大量國際評估數據，指出過度使用數位科技與學生成績之間存在「負相關」。
儘管科技有可能為數百萬人提供學習機會，但其益處分佈不均，世界上許多貧困人口實際上是被排除在外的。數位教育的基礎設施成本高昂，且其環境成本常被低估，報告寫道。
聯合國教科文組織在其2023年《全球教育監測報告》中表示，幾乎沒有強有力的研究證明數位科技本質上為教育增加了價值。大部分證據都是由試圖銷售數位學習產品的私立教育公司資助的。報告補充說，這些公司對世界各地教育政策日益增加的影響力「令人擔憂」。
它承認，當學校及大學在COVID-19封城期間關閉時，線上學習「阻止了教育的崩潰」。它估計，疫情期間全球有超過10億學生轉向線上學習，但補充說，數百萬無法上網的貧困學生被排除在外。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
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