On the use of mobile phones by students during school education and the UNESCO study, according to which “the use of mobile phones at school distracts students and can take up to 20 minutes for them to refocus on what they were doing before,” said the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, in a post on social media from Paris and at the UNESCO conference on digital technology and artificial intelligence in education.
Pierrakakis emphasized that “by preventing the use of mobile phones in schools in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom, student performance improved, especially those who were not at the top of the list” to demonstrate the need for our country to follow the same steps to solve the problem.
Mr. Pierrakakis’ post reads as follows:
“Technology is a means, not an end in itself. Multiple technological solutions support education, but they need to be done with planning, measurement and caution. Using mobile phones in school distracts students and, according to a UNESCO study, it can take up to 20 minutes for them to refocus on what they were previously studying. Avoiding the use of mobile phones in schools in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom improved student performance, especially for those who were not at the top of the list.
The use of technology and especially Artificial Intelligence in Education is the topic we are discussing in the context of the Digital Learning Week 2024 organized by UNESCO in Paris, looking for the best approaches centered on the student and the teacher.”