Goodbye to laptops: writing by hand again to regain attention in the classroom
The Maria Àngels Cardona institute of Ciutadella limits the use of devices to improve writing skills and reading comprehension
PalmThe Maria Àngels Cardona Institute in Ciutadella will limit the use of computers next academic year and will work to reinforce learning with paper. The faculty of the Minorcan center approved the new Model for the use of learning materials, which postpones the use of laptops until the third year of ESO and makes paper the reference tool for organizing and structuring class subjects.
The aim of reducing screen time is, above all, to improve linguistic competence and reading comprehension. Computers will become “a complementary tool and not a primary one”, according to the center's director, Nel Martí. “These devices have modified the habits of young people and have caused an evident loss that forces us to redirect the situation”, he adds. Their use cannot exceed 20% of the weekly schedule in the first and second years of ESO and cannot reach 50% in the third year.
The initiative, which the faculty had been debating for some time, is part of the recommendations from the Ministry of Education and international organizations to reduce screen exposure time and also aligns with a growing demand from families.
The pilot experience will begin next academic year, so that first-year ESO students will not have to buy any computers – they will only use them from the third year onwards. “We will try it for two years, although we will constantly review how it works and try to resolve any dysfunctions that arise”, explains Martí.
It is necessary to regulate the time spent in front of screens and promote a return to handwriting and reading on paper. This also implies suppressing digital licenses and the gratuity of printed material, which the center will purchase and lend to students.
The books, free
Reading and textbook books will become free, thanks to the loan system that the institute will launch. Families will not have to buy them and will pay a deposit in exchange for the loan of the material which, at the end of the course, will have to be returned to the institute.
The change will affect around 600 students, including the more than one hundred who will start first year of ESO, the 400 who are currently studying it, and the 150 in Bachillerato, to whom the measure is planned to be applied later.
"Work can be done in another way," highlights Martí. "We take risks and bet on this model, we return the protagonism to paper reading and writing tools and families appreciate it. It complicates things for them to have to manage a computer at home, because it is an additional screen to the mobile phone," he continues.
The director emphasizes the triple benefit of the measure: it promotes savings for families, reduces screen time at home, and means students have to carry less weight in their backpacks.
Families applaud the measure
The center's parents' association has given the go-ahead to the measure and shares the opinion that excessive screen use in the classroom and at home “distracts children and doesn't help them concentrate”. “The monster is too powerful and any measure in this regard is good”, says the entity's president, Glòria Bosch. “Adolescents associate screens with leisure and it causes distractions, especially when reading”, she continues. “Sometimes, children dedicate more time to the form than to the content and get lost in presentations with Canva and other programs that turn out to be very cool, but to the detriment of applying themselves to understanding texts”, she adds. The president applauds that “we are returning to paper and notebooks to encourage reading, without neglecting technological skills”.
The economic factor also plays an important role. Bosch calculates the savings at around 400 euros per student in the first year of ESO: about 300 for the purchase of the computer, 40 for the payment of digital licenses, and 38 for materials and photocopies. Even so, she recalls that “it only delays the acquisition of the laptop, which has a useful life of four years and which, if it starts to be used in the third year of ESO, can also be used in subsequent studies”.
The decision of the IES Maria Àngels Cardona faculty has driven groups opposed to excessive screen use to try to extend the initiative to other institutes in Menorca, at least in Ciutadella. This is what Maria Florit, from the Aulas sin pantallas (Classrooms without screens) association, hopes for. This movement emerged in the summer of 2023, after the pandemic, and brings together about 200 people, including families, teachers, doctors, and other professionals, and promotes a review of educational digitalization. “A group of mothers with children who will be starting first year of ESO next year mobilized to ask the two institutes in the city if there were alternatives in case we did not authorize our minors to use their own computers and emails.” When they contacted Maria Àngels Cardona, it already had a defined stance on the matter – the limitation that was approved on March 11.
“Teachers have realized that the current model does not favor them either, as children are doing worse in reading and writing. If you put a distracting device in front of them, it is more difficult for them to concentrate”, says Florit. “We are not against digital skills or digitalization in the classroom, but we do not feel strong enough to have to manage another device at home and have to set more limits”, he adds.
This responsibility will fall on the teaching staff, as laptops will continue to be used at these ages, but only within the center and with limitations. No student will have to take it home.