The “digital frenzy” is one of the main causes that explains the general decline in the educational performance of students confirmed by the latest PISA report. That is at least what Telmo Lazkano considers, a high school teacher who became famous after he managed to get around twenty students to give him their cell phones for a week in order to analyze the striking patterns of dependency on him. In the opinion of this teacher, he is the author, together with Maitane Ormazabal, of the book Las Voces del Silencio. Adolescent mental health in the decade of change, objective data demonstrate that a reckless digital commitment is negatively influencing the acquisition of basic skills, attention span, lexical richness or frustration tolerance.
Telmo Lazkano's research and dissemination work on the relationship between young people and screens came to the media as a result of the No Phone Challange project, a research project carried out at an institute in San Sebastián. This teacher got 19 of the 23 students he taught to give him their cell phone for a week. Afterwards, he locked the phones in the center's office and asked his students, aged 15 and 16, to write a small diary during those days. The surprising results showed a very clear picture of dependency: they lived nervously, could not sleep, ate more than normal, suffered intrusive thoughts, did not know how to deal with boredom, got angry easily...
That project, however, also served to ultimately make them more aware of their relationship with cell phones and networks, and to establish, from there, healthier habits.
Lazkano, professor of English and Social Sciences, emphasizes that the 2015 PISA report already pointed out emphatically that the countries that had invested the most in digitalization had achieved worse results: “Andreas Schleicher, responsible for the program at the time, said very clearly that technology can help achieve excellent quality teaching, but basic skills must first be established. It was not taken into account and this misuse has become widespread.”
The Gipuzkoan professor alludes, in this sense, to the “Matthew effect.” “It is called this because of the reference to the Gospel: to those who have more, more will be given and to those who have less, more will be taken away. Technology can help tremendously once certain skills are mastered, but it can also impede the development of those skills if premature access occurs. A mathematician can use a calculator to address complex problems in an effective way and it will be of great help; However, if we give a calculator to a child who does not know how to add, he will be harmed by an early dependency on that technology. He will not acquire a minimal understanding of mathematical concepts. The same will happen if we offer you a program that produces texts without having first worked on written expression.”
The teacher also alludes to the loss of the capacity for imagination and concentration. “If we tell a child between 0 and 4 years old a story, we will see how he will develop and stimulate his brain to form an image, for example, of the features and clothing that the protagonists may have. However, through a screen you have no reason to stimulate his brain: he is simply being entertained. If we also introduce screens in classrooms, the problem multiplies. In addition, we are accustoming children to such brief stimuli that they then do not respond when they need the ability to concentrate to take an exam or even watch a movie.”
The consequences in terms of loss of motivation and the “amputation of the lexicon” would also come, to a large extent, from the influence of screens: “Managing frustration is complicated because what screens and mobile phones give you It is immediate gratification, requiring no effort. Regarding the loss of language, which seems key to me and is seen by all teachers, what happens is that a child enriches his language thanks to the interaction with his parent; However, this contact is poorer because both children and adults spend more and more time in front of screens.”
Lazkano believes that there are other reasons behind the poor results in PISA and, looking for significant solutions, calls for reducing the ratios. In any case, he sees a common factor in digitalization: “We must see what the teaching objective should be and what the needs are, and, from there, adapt the use of technology, if it provides added value in the learning process and taking into account the development of the person. “We have done the opposite.”
