Study Shows Using Laptops in Classrooms Not Beneficial

By: Talha Bhatti  |   August 21st, 2013   |   News

In this era of enhancing technology where smart phones and laptops are getting faster and cheaper with every passing day, it is not hard to believe that students are finding it much easier to use their Notebook computers rather than the old traditional paper notebooks. Nonetheless, some believe that this advancement might be a hazardous distraction rather than a beneficial advantage.

Many have gone about to ponder over this and a study was conducted recently where researchers attended lectures in universities and completed a couple of MCQ quizzes in two experiments. This study was published in the Computer and Education journal.

An interesting first experiment was conducted to see how distractions due to laptops affect a specific participants learning ability. They were allowed to take notes on their laptops during a meteorology lecture but had to do tasks online when they had free time. These interesting tasks were assigned to simulate normal activities of students using laptops in lectures which include online searches and other such distractions.

The second one was simpler compared to the first one and asked students to take notes on paper using their pens and pencils like the old fashioned way while others used laptops. The main purpose of this experiment was to see whether these individuals would be distracted or annoyed by those using laptops due to the big screens and the tapping sounds.

“We really tried to make it pretty close to what actually happens in the lectures, we found that lo and behold, the students who multitasked performed much worse on the final test and those who were seated around peers who were multitasking also performed much worse on the final test,” said Faria Sana, co-author of the study.

“So you might not be multitasking but if you have a clear view of someone else who is multitasking, your performance is still going to be impaired.”

It seems surprising to most that their performances drop due to the usage of laptops in classrooms.

“A lot of students spend quite a big chunk of time in class doing things that are not related to the academic environment or aren’t directly related to the course or the lecture,” Sana said. “We’re hoping that based on these results, students will take responsibility for their actions.” Although the study is not advocating a laptop ban in class, it is advising students to think twice before using their computers during lectures for extracurricular activities—for the sake of their own education and the people around them.

Source: TechVibes

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