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Technology and Students

A Summary of the Empirical Literature on How Technology is Affecting Students

Technology is changing the way students spend out-of-class time.

  • The vast majority of students multitask when doing their academic work. They listen to music, watching TV, scan e-readers, check email, send and receive texts and communicate through social media while studying or doing homework
  • Many students believe they can do these things without any loss in performance. Some think it helps them concentrate.
  • Multitasking does compromise learning for 98% of people. Use of Facebook, sending and/or receiving texts, emailing, having a phone conversation, and background TV are related to poorer test performance and GPAs and far longer completion time.
  • These effects are worse for difficult tasks, under high cognitive load, and for students with poorer cognitive/attentional control.

Technology is changing the way students engage with in-class time.

  • Most students multitask when they have laptops or mobile devices in class.
  • Laptop use in lecture-based classes leads to poorer learning and performance.
  • Laptops (but not tablets) also impair learning of peers sitting within view.
  • Students underestimate their frequency of multitasking in class (e.g., email, texting).
  • Self-regulation and self-efficacy are related to less laptop multitasking
  • School-related laptop or tablet behaviors in class are associated with better performance

Technology use is changing some learning habits and expectations, but not necessarily brain and cognitive development.

  • Use of the internet promotes “cognitive offloading” or the outsourcing of memory
  • To date, no evidence that technology is damaging the brain or altering the course of attentional and cognitive development
  • No evidence that “digital natives” develop strategies for more successfully multitasking

Students multitask for social and emotional reasons even when they know it disrupts learning

  • Students report an emotional need to interrupt activities to check in with social media, and feel anxious when prevented from doing so.
  • Just telling students that multitasking is bad does not seem to change behavior.
  • People find it pleasant to multitask- for students, multitasking with Facebook and texting/IM is related to habit and to motivations to pass time/procrastinate, entertain oneself, and connect with people.
  • Adolescent, even older adolescents, are more sensitive to these rewards.

There are other pros and cons to low- and high-tech materials and learning experiences.

  • Tablets and laptops facilitate library access and online research
  • Interactive reading materials can include prompts/questions that promote metacognition
  • Questions about cognitive load and screen size?
  • Physical activity that generates relevant visuospatial experience can improve learning
  • Writing by hand and sketching also improve learning

Key Strategies

How we can support more productive and less distractive use of technology in our students:

  1. To better harness the potential of mobile devices for learning, have students use devices for active and collaborative learning during class (e.g., problem solving, research, etc…) rather than for note-taking during lecture, a context in which multitasking is very tempting).
  2. Empower students to create strategies and policies to self-regulate their use of their devices during class time.
  3. Provide opportunities for students to take a break and satisfy the social and emotional motivators of technology use.
  4. Develop lessons/modules for students on how to productively use learning technology (e.g., how do you read and take notes on a PDF?) that are integrated with courses, much like library search sessions. 

References

Carter, S.P., Greenberg, K., & Walker, M.S. (2017).  The impact of computer usage on academic performance: Evidence from a randomized trial at the United States Military Academy. Economics of Education Review, 56, 118–132

Courage, M.L., Bakhtiar, A., Fitzpatrick, C., Kenny, S., & Brandeau, K. (2015). Growing up multitasking: The costs and benefits for cognitive development. Developmental Review 35, 5–41.

Kraushaar, J.M., & Novak, D.C. Examining the Affects of Student Multitasking With Laptops During the Lecture. Journal of Information Systems Education, Vol. 21(2)

Mokhtari, Kouider;Delello, Julie;Reichard, Carla. (2015). Connected Yet Distracted: Multitasking Among College Students. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 45(2). p. 164

Additional Resources

Here are some additional resources that explore some of these issues in greater detail: