Education will not be able to remove screens in Preschool as it promised, but it will limit their use
Having acquired the devices with Next Generation funds, the Government cannot get rid of the digital whiteboards with guarantees
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BarcelonaThe Department of Education will not remove digital whiteboards from I3, I4, and I5 classrooms, as it announced it would do in June 2024. Ultimately, the Government has opted to restrict their use, but will not remove them from the classrooms of the youngest school children. The main reason is that these devices were acquired through Next Generation funds—during Minister Cambray's term—which means that, now, the Government does not have the power to remove them entirely or move them without running the risk of no longer having their maintenance guaranteed. In this way, as reported by El Periódico and confirmed by ARA, the Department of Education will suppress "free use" of the screens in the second cycle of preschool and will not allow them to have an internet connection, but it will not remove them.
The change was made public through the update of the Responsible Digitalization Plan published by the ministry, which proposes a model of "pedagogical, restricted, and safe" use. The document establishes differentiated access levels to these digital whiteboards depending on who is using them and a specific user profile, called Infant, with limited functionalities and a simplified environment.
Sources from the Department of Education assure that with this new model "the digital whiteboard must be an occasional educational resource, not a screen for permanent use." "It should be used when it adds value to shared educational activity—fostering conversation, oral language, joint observation, creativity, listening, collaborative projects, and shared knowledge construction—and its usage time must be controlled," they insist.
Three levels of access
Thus, there will be three levels of access to digital devices in infant education courses: the teacher, under a password, will have the full multimedia functionalities; administrators will have total access to manage the whiteboard, and the class level will have direct access but with restrictions. Specifically, free internet browsing will not be allowed; instead, access will only be possible to authorized resources in the EDU365 environment (interactives and workshops, for example) and the JClic activity library, which contains games to foster oral expression and comprehension, memory, or visual perception.
In addition, functionalities will also be activated to be able to use the digital whiteboards as whiteboards—to write on them with a digital marker—and as an audio player, calculator, or digital microscope, among others.
