PARIS: The United Nations has warned that heavy reliance on technology in education may be fruitless if the technology interferes with the acquisition of basic skills like reading, AFP reported on Wednesday.
In a statement, UNESCO said students must learn regarding the technology in the world and teachers should beware of misusing “extravagant technological” means in the classroom.
The UN body said that there was little healthy evidence of digital technology’s added value in the education sector.
Technology Use in Classrooms
The reports of UNESCO said that the technology should focus on learning, not on digital contributions.”
An official of UNESCO, Manos Antoninis said that twenty years after laptops started to be rolled out in educational institutions, it was clear that such policies only did work if they were combined with a firm pedagogical framework.
He maintained that it was not enough to just distribute laptops and devices among the students in educational institutions.
UN has also observed a rising trend of banning mobile phones and smartphones in classrooms, with “one in four nations” approving laws to that effect. He added that smartphone bans in educational institutions, especially in schools, including in The Netherlands, were ” interesting ” for the UNESCO researchers.
The UNESCO warned strongly against substituting new technology for the acquisition of traditional key skills, which could actually help kids avoid some of the drawbacks of the digital world.
Antoninis further said that If you were taught to read well, read for meaning, that makes you also better prepared to navigate the digital world, and that is a reality that we often forget.
