Smartphones at school, the pediatrician: “No to the ban, let’s use it in the first 2 hours”

Starting next year, no more smartphones at school for elementary and middle school children, not even for educational purposes. The latest announcement by the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara, is opposed by pediatrician Italo Farnetani, who in December 2022 had instead supported the circular with which the same minister limited the ban to non-didactic uses. Now the expert not only says no to the new restriction, but goes further to launch a proposal: “In class – the doctor declares to Adnkronos Salute – teachers should teach how to use cell phones, and more generally the Internet, correctly”. And “they should do it at the beginning of the day, in the first 2 hours of school, when the mind is not yet ready” for theory, “to absorb the most complex notions, but is already ready” for practice, “to carry out concrete operations”. And so until 10 ‘smartphone lesson’, is the idea of ​​the full professor of Pediatrics at the Ludes-United Campus University of Malta.

“If it is right that during lessons the smartphone cannot be used for extracurricular activities that go beyond learning”, according to the specialist “it is correct to use it as a teaching tool”, in line with “the change and new needs of society”. Farnetani observes in fact that “the smartphone has become the main electronic tool of daily use, much more than tablets and PCs” now pushed into the corner. “You only have to look around to realize it”. This is why the smartphone should be used as a means of learning and even become ‘subject’. That is, “the school, in the context of its educational task – says the pediatrician – should teach” to “children and adolescents who are digital natives, but today essentially self-taught”, what is “the correct use of the Internet and the electronic resources of the smartphone”.

By teaching the proper use of the Internet and smartphones in the classroom, “we will contribute to the digitalization of society with benefits for the efficiency of the country”, Farnetani hopes. “The teacher in an organic way, with professionalism and adequate teaching, will train a new digital generation”, the children’s doctor predicts. “The school – is the message – should include the smartphone among the ‘tools’ of its training program, providing an appropriate balance with other learning tools. It will also be a way to protect the very young from the bad use of the Internet and the associated risks – reflects the expert – to teach them to recognize authoritative and reliable sites from those that are not and that can represent a danger”.

The pediatrician then rejects the return to the old diary in which to write down assigned homework. “What sense does it make – he asks – in a society now based on digitalization, in which much of communication and archiving has been dematerialized, where even the Public Administration is oriented towards saving paper?”. For Farnetani, “on the contrary, it is good to teach students to memorize homework on electronic media. It will be a great training ground for them for future work commitments. In fact, I wonder how many people today in Italy use a paper diary and how many use an electronic one”. Among other things, “today even the dialogue between the parents of students and with the school takes place through the Internet. Just think that each class has its own WhatsApp group”, or rather only one when things go well. In short, “the school – concludes the doctor – must keep pace with society, be attentive to its changes and adapt so that they occur in the best way”.