The city Riihimaki of Finland decided to return to traditional textbooks and reduce the use of digital devices in school, after a decade of promoting laptops and other digital tools in education. The Finnish education system, known worldwide for its good results and innovation, had delivered free laptops to students from the age of 11. However, parents and educators are concerned about the effects of too much screen time on children.
The city of 30,000 inhabitants, which as of 2018 had almost eliminated books from schools, opted to return to the use of paper and pen. Maia Kaunonen, an English teacher, told Reuters that children use phones and digital devices so much in their daily lives that they did not want school to be another place where children only look at screens. The constant distractions from using digital devices make many students restless and hard to concentrate.
Students often completed exercises quickly to engage with games and social media, and it was easy to switch tabs in the browser when the teacher approached. In Finland, children’s learning performance has been falling in recent years and the government is planning new legislation to ban the use of personal devices during school hours, with the aim of reducing children’s screen time.
Students reported that the their concentration has improved since returning to books. Minna Peltopouro, a clinical neuropsychologist working with the city, points out that too much time in front of screens can cause both physical and mental problems, such as eye problems and increased anxiety, highlighting the difficulties presented by multitasking, especially for young women. ages.
Source: www.digitallife.gr
