Will students also soon need a right or duty to disconnect? In private schools, while often themselves favoring technology in their own subjects, teachers note that on a school scale, that ultimately adds up to a lot of screens.
Digital schoolbooks, electronic diaries, homework and lessons on the computer: technology is spreading, particularly in private schools which often seek to stand out by presenting themselves as being more technological than the others.
“We fear for the mental health of students,” says from the outset in a meeting with The Press Léandre Lapointe, vice-president of the National Federation of Teachers of Quebec (FNEEQ–CSN), which deals with the issue of private schools. (Because yes, many private school teachers are unionized.)
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Patrick Lupien, teacher and president of the teachers’ union at Regina Assumpta college, where technologies are particularly debated
Patrick Lupien, teacher at Regina Assumpta, in Montreal, gives this very simple example which illustrates the importance of taming the beast.
Small Saturday morning like any other. The teacher begins his corrections. He enters the grades into the school’s computer system, into the portal accessible to all. “The student has 81%, but the teacher makes an entry error and writes 18%. »
A trivial error with no consequences? Not for the student who, at home, will have difficulty digesting their pancakes when receiving this 18% in the face. Or a 48% which would be its real result.
“Students struggling with performance anxiety can spend the entire weekend waiting for their grade to appear on the screen,” observes Léandre Lapointe, himself a professional teacher.
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Valérie Baldacchino, science teacher at the Montreal college
Valérie Baldacchino, a teacher at the Montreal college, indicates that in her establishment, “we gave ourselves rules. We no longer publish grades on the portal without first submitting grades to class.”
Pierre Gaudreau, director of development and technological innovation at the Montreal college, also says this, while regretting certain occasional breaches of the rule. When this happens, “the teacher is reminded of our ways of doing things”.
The CSN sees the Montreal college as a model to follow in terms of technology. In 2023, a collective agreement was concluded there containing guidelines and enshrining the right of teachers to have a voice.
In Regina Assumpta, six days of strike have already punctuated the year. Two other days are also in the bank. What catches the eye, according to Patrick Lupien, who is president of the teachers’ union there? Technologies and distance learning methods. The director, Julie Duchesne, says that technologies “are part of the points” in dispute.
Without returning to the Stone Age, a reflection to carry out
Schools have jumped on the technology bandwagon, with trial and error. At the Montreal college, Mr. Gaudreau notes, for example, that the computer has just replaced the obligatory tablet “because the students installed Instagram, Messenger, gaming applications” on it, sources of distraction in class.
The computer (at the parents’ expense) is now configured by the school, which retains control.
Mr. Gaudreau nevertheless confides that the school’s internal messaging systems included in the platforms “can also be a source of distraction” and a classroom management challenge.
Because in the middle of maths class, Léa can very well send a message telling Sophie, in her geography class at the end of the corridor, what she did at the end of the week.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Léandre Lapointe, vice-president of the National Federation of Teachers of Quebec (FNEEQ–CSN), responsible for the private grouping.
Léandre Lapointe, from FNEEQ–CSN, insists: the idea here is certainly not to put the genie back in the bottle, but to think seriously about it.
Teachers consulted gave the example of learning maps, in geography, with very good digital tools. Much more fun and effective, too, to learn multiplication with Météor Maths than with your mother.
On the other hand, for certain other things, it is less happy. Mme Baldacchino, who is a science teacher, talks about chemical and mathematical equations. “It takes 20 times more time on the computer!” Find the arrow, the smaller symbol, the larger symbol, the exponent… The time you spend looking for your symbols on the keyboard is time lost solving the equation! »
But useful or not, for Léandre Lapointe, the big issue is one of health and safety.
A young person cannot “spend four or five hours in front of a screen at school”, do their homework on the computer and then relax in front of video games without it having an impact on them.
This summer, UNESCO threw a wrench into the water by stating that there is “little solid evidence of the added value of technology in education”.
Matthieu Pelard, research consultant at the Federation of Private Education Personnel (FPEP–CSQ), notes for his part that if no study confirms that technologies can be the cause of academic delays, “everything the world is realizing it” on the ground.
The idea is not to return to the Stone Age, he also says, but to note that “some students are more affected than others by loss of attention”.
In his opinion, the ban on cell phones in class is “the tree that hides the forest”.
A marketing argument, but also a teacher preference
During open days, in their marketing, “everywhere, technology is put forward by private colleges,” indicates Patrick Lupien, president of the Regina Assumpta college union. “The idea of preparing children for the 21ste century, it resonates very strongly with parents. »
The director of the college, Julie Duchesne, maintains that the use of technological tools is well balanced. Mr. Lupien refuses to allow management to decide on the technological tools that teachers will have to use.
But if we give them the choice, in their college, for example, do teachers opt for digital or paper versions? Mr. Lupien responds that in Regina Assumpta, teachers prefer the digital format. This therefore means that teachers contribute greatly to this excess of screen time, right? “It is certain that if all teachers opt for digital, that homework is too” and that when they return from school, “Xbox, PlayStation and social networks, everything explodes”, he agrees.