[alexduros]

I don't know if it's good or bad news. But what is very disappointing is that when French government deal with digital natives issues, it's a question about "should we fear about smartphones or not ?" As Laurent Alexandre explains it perfectly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJowm24piM4, in french) in many talks he gives those times to the French government, we should spend more thinking about how to educate our children to use and understand those new technologies, instead of fearing it and applying the "good old french precautionary principle" to keep our eduction system free of smartphones, full of chalk and blackboard...

[bambax]

> full of chalk and blackboard

Thanks for the link to Mr. Alexandre's talk; very informative. He's a little heavy on the hyperbole but many of his warnings ring true, esp. the fact that Europe is squashed between the American GAFA and the Asian BATX, with no response of her own.

That said, French schools are not esp. technology-adverse; most (all?) classrooms are equipped with a "TNI" (tableau noir interactif) which is in fact a great improvement versus traditional blackboard and chalk.

Banning smartphones in schools is a very good thing IMHO; teaching technology is a distinct issue; kids don't use smartphones to learn technology but, most of the time, to consume content or exchange messages.

Just because you have a car doesn't make you a mechanic, but it makes you walk less.

[jeromenerf]

s/TNI/TBI/ : "tableau blanc interactif".

Having led some experiments with those, I am not sure they are a real improvement over a chalkboard:

- they cost much more and are pretty useless without computers / tablets for the teacher and pupils - they require skills from the teachers to operate them - the software ecosystem is poor - slightly OT, wifi is not allowed in schools

So, while the concept is attractive, the current implementations requires a lot of efforts and little value, even in the corporate world.

I'd like to read some reviews about google's jamboard though.

[bambax]

I'm pretty sure the name is TNI although the board is indeed white.

I did discuss this with my children's teachers and challenge the whole concept, since like you I thought there should be a lot of value to justify replacing an ages-old technology that doesn't require power with a fragile one that can break and needs to be plugged in.

I was surprised to see the teachers themselves were very enthusiastic about it.

The one feature that really sold the technology to me was the fact that one can switch from the problem to the correction and back, which is impossible to do with chalk.

Also, teachers can prepare the lessons in advance. Basically, it helps productivity, it saves time. Another detail, the teacher faces the class when writing on the TNI, instead of turning her back to the pupils, which I remember was a great opportunity for children to be unruly.

(And TNIs didn't remove blackboards, they're in addition to them; if the TNI stops working or if the teacher prefers, blackboards are still there and still available.)

[ornitorrincos]

to be honest, the greatest improvement over chalkboards are whitebooards, you can write freely, no need of computers, multiple people, and no damn dust