Latest Research on Laptops & Phones in Class

Hello colleagues, A recent study has confirmed results regarding use of laptops and cell phones in class. Do these devices help or hinder learners' retention of information over time? Check out this brief article by Emma Whitford to find out and let us know your thoughts.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, Teaching & Learning CoP

Comments

I wish to share a perspective that may seem rough or abrasive when reading in text, but please know that I love and admire every educator I have had the chance to work with and feel we all offer people so many opportunities. The short response is that I disagree with the article in that they are focusing on the wrong source of the student disconnection. 

"For about five or six years, [student] performance was getting better and better," he said. "But because I was attuned to this, and because I was collecting an enormous amount of data, I was immediately aware when things started changing. Students started ignoring me -- they used to not ignore me."

Students are finding that the content of education is starting to phase over into irrelevant territory for them. The world changes at an exponential pace right now and yet our content is stagnant in comparison. Unless education can somehow morph into a quickly adapting structure, it is simply a matter of time before the content we focus on in education is simply not relevant to the lives the students live in now nor the one they will mature into in just 3-5 years. I think we are right on the cusp of that generational shift where the acquisition of academic content is viewed at as almost completely irrelevant. 

As for students ignoring teachers, if you spent just 3 hours with a youth today watching what they do in the complex video games they play, most of us would be fatigued and slightly overloaded from sensory overload. Our youth today are doing 5-8 hours of this massive stimulation of sight, sound, kinestetic responses, and quick thinking to adapt to in-game changes that happen in seconds. In contrast, go into most any classroom today. At best they might have some visuals, someone talking WITH them, and maybe one short 5 minute activity every hour they are in school. More typically, students will have someone talking AT them, with very little interaction and some visuals of lots of data (often out of any context) being presented to them to absorb. The contrasts between the modes of stimulation in the academic environments compared to the technology environments is vastly changing and many of us are just not privy to that other world students spend all that time in. 

The article then goes on to center on long term memory decline...

"This is one of the occasional cases in human cognition where our intuitions mislead us, because even though they can divide their attention well enough to remember in the moment … what happens is that a week later, they’ve pretty much forgotten what happened in class," Glass said. "What’s the point of going to class in the first place if a week later you don’t remember it?"

My immediate thought was, "What's the point of going to class if the content is not worth remembering in the life I am leading?"

If you gave me a room full of adults that were attending my lecture on how the video game, Guild Wars 2 works and the massive amount of content that is available in that experience, many adults would tire of it quickly and feel the lecture did not have any meaning. Even the most respectful adults become distracted, irritated, and disruptive. Meanwhile, a few of us would be fascinated and latch right on to the content presented and want to go home right away and apply what we have learned. This can be experienced with almost any group of people with almost any topic. If the content is not PERCEIVED as relevant by the audience there will be no long term retention or application of what is presented. Interestingly, almost everyone will remember how they felt and specific events that helped to create those feelings at that time with great detail. With that in mind, I respectfully disagree with the quote above. In studies about how we learn, there has been many pointing out that the more variety of environments we study a material in, the more synaptic connections we make which help build longer retention. This completely throws out the habits we have long held of having a quite place to study with no distractions. Those quiet places do help us prep for that test tomorrow, but almost never helps us retain long term. I would counter that it is specifically because the content did not matter in the first place to the person as the major contributor of the person not recalling the specifics long term. 

The last paragraph of the article really frustrates me. The mandate of education is to provide options of exploration, experiences, reasons for learning, and applications of learning to better enable individuals to find success in life. Our current habits of artificially inflated, subjective evaluations in classes as well as efforts to "keep others off our professional backs" have almost handicapped many good teachers from fully offering students what is needed. Within the profession, and even more so out in the public, perceptions on what "works" in education and how people learn best seem very much out of line with what research shares with us. Even worse, most of us, if put in the same situation as the students on a day to day basis would become extremely frustrated,  at best. I have experienced adult learner frustration due to irrelevance many a time in PD sessions I have attended. 

I share these perspective in the hopes that people, somewhere, are discussing the increasing irrelevancy of our education content/methods and how the gap between that "real world" and content/methods continues to grow wider and wider. In order to offer more than just gloom and doom perceptions, I do wish to offer a solution or at least something to discuss.

For most of Educational System history, practice has been teacher-centric. We often have the laws set up to advantage the adults, we have schedules based on what works for adults, and most of our systems are based more on what the adults are comfortable with rather than what works best for individuals to learn or progress in their uniquely efficient manner. Please don't misunderstand me in thinking that I advocate we just turn the whole system over to the students and see what happens (although that might be cool to experience). Rather, I would like to explore what could be possible in education to establish a model that could be worked towards instead of a constantly fluctuating focus that is more reactionary to the whims or concerns of the day. If professionals can help set the short and long term goals with individuals, provide navigation options for each learner to help individuals engage in the content goals in meaningful ways, and help create the personal bonds that everyone so cherishes when thinking about their BEST educational experiences, well then, maybe that is a system we could flesh out.

Maybe it is ideal at first and totally far fetched. Just remember, in your lifetime many of the tools used and seen in science fiction books, radio shows, television programs and in movies have all come to life. Our phones today would blow away the crew of the Star Trek Enterprise and those pesky Rebels in Star Wars would never be able to slink around so easily with our detection and algorithmic devices today. Sometimes important things have to start as a fictional ideas, but if they are important enough, there are those out there that will make the fiction into reality. Maybe without global fanfare and often those most responsible for the positive change are trampled in the process, but hey, educators are already beat up on a frequent basis, right? 

So, in closing, I ask that all of us be careful about focusing on "the thing" we have the microscope centered on at any given time. We need to zoom out and look at the people we aim to help and what their needs, goals, and desires are and help them find the academic tools that will best fit their chances of finding success. I know this would scramble much of what exists today and may seem impractical, but if we can't collectively dream it, there will be no chance of conceiving it. If we don't start soon, the time of academic irrelevance may swoop in much faster than we expect.

 

Hi Ed, I think you make a lot of valid and thought-provoking points in your post. From what you write, it seems that you believe that everything being taught needs to relate to learners in some way. I agree with this in principle.

Your response here got me thinking about a video filmed by adult education students in Canada in which they asked people in the community, "What did you learn today?" The responses were really interesting and included things such as finding out about a dog park and getting a bargain on chocolate to learning to fill out tax forms and how to change decimals to fractions. Some of the people interviewed were people on the street; others were adult basic education students or students enrolled in some kind of medical training. One person had learned the names for all the amino acids that day, and I'm guessing she was probably tested on that information in the course she was taking.

Do you think there is ever a time when learners need to learn things that  may not have immediate relevance, such as learning the names of amino acids?

I agree 100% that striving to make every lesson as relevant and engaging as possible is so important. However, I also recognize that some learning requires real effort and hard work. Putting forth effort leads to great satisfaction in the end. 

I'm interested in your and other members' thoughts.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition and Teaching & Learning CoP

 

Susan, that video you talked about seems very good and if it is publicly available, dropping a link to it would be nice. 

You mention the value of students engaging in hard work and I would extend that into learning how to persevere as well. We all need the ability to engage in hard work that goes beyond our immediate interests and our perceptions about that new content. The problem right now is that so much of what is offered to students falls into the, "Please put up with this and push through this because it will be good for you...trust us!" categories. Students may initially capitulate because they trust that teachers have their interests at heart but when they encounter the same message all the time the student begins to feel that the teacher cares more about their prescribed program rather than who the individual is and what he or she needs or wants. I don't think we need to swing to extremes one way or another, but we definitely don't have a system where the individuality of our students is in any kind of central focus or even an equal focus. 

Learning the names of the amino acids falls into a few categories based on the individual contemplating the study.

For those going into bio or any fields related to food, nutrition, human anatomy, sports therapy and other science, the study is a must and will certainly be expected. 

For those that get into all kinds of neat trivia, this could be lots of fun. Heck I know the air speed velocity of the average mosquito. Why? Well, because one afternoon I was wondering if it was possible to out run all the little pests making my walk a miserable one. The answer, by the way, is that you can out run a mosquito, but the problem is that you would be running right into new mosquito friends when you stopped running  Who the heck needs to know this? It is fun to know though and it gets you to think about things that can be related to other areas of exploration!

A third group, the gamers, might be interested in such a study. There are some wonderful board and card games that deal with the subject and knowing about each amino acid can really help you get a leg up on your competition. One such game is called Peptide (Learn about it here, Buy it here) and may be of interest for those who have students interested in learning about how amino acids might work.  Another game called Compounded (Learn about it here, Buy it here) extends a bit into what variables are involved in running a compound mixing lab. I have both and game play with adults has entertained and inspired further exploration related to the fields!

See, there is no one set use for any tool, method, or resource. Depending on the needs and interests of those we get to spend time with, it is part of our job to help the individual navigate through all the possible options we know about to find one that best fits. Of course, we each individually can never know about all the resources or tools or methods available! This is why social networks and forums like this are so vital in our profession! A doctor would never assume to know everything and they are constantly calling peers and colleges around the country and world to confer, discuss and share possible treatments in many cases. Sadly, in teaching, we have students that get frustrated that leads to adults getting frustrated and then those frustrated adults get together to discuss how frustrated they are, and only in a few lucky complaining sessions does some possible solution get shared between those adults. There seems to be some insecurity in teachers to reach out to others and say, "Hey, do you have any ideas for how I might get this person engaged in .... I have tried to do ..... and all I see is ....Any ideas you have that I could try are very welcome, thanks!" We can all improve this with the technology available, and yet it still seems so hard to get that ball rolling... suggestions welcomed!

So, yes, we agree that encouraging effort, and perseverance to push through difficult or seemingly useless stuff is important as long as that is not the constant focus. When it is the constant focus, people start to perceive the help offered as simply some sadistic agenda designed to established obedience at worst and at best just a waste of time that leaves one feeling that no one cares. No educator I have ever met would ever intend such an outcome and yet, how many times in adult education do we hear people entering our programs and sharing a feeling similar to "...no one has ever cared about me or who I am or what I want to be able to do..." ?

Hi Ed and all, The Antigonish County Adult Education Association (ACALA) in Nova Scotia has engaged adult learners in video production. Here is a link to ACALA's YouTube channel, and here is the link to the specific video I mentioned in my previous post on "What did you learn today?".  I'm sure most of us would agree that this type of learning is highly engaging and would build a wide range of marketable skills for learners who participate. I would love it if more programs could offer this kind of opportunity to adult learners.

I appreciate your emphasizing the value associated with hard work and perseverance, Ed. I am certain that students engaged in making these documentaries put forth a great deal of effort. And I totally agree with you that a steady diet of teacher-centered lecturing and/or dry workbook exercises is not "healthy" for most learners, nor do these approaches to instruction lead to much learning.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition and Teaching & Learning CoPs

I'm thinking of my son, who really doesn't like to try new foods and has a very small circle of interest in food in general.  He enjoys almost all snack foods - chips, fruit snacks, granola bars, etc.  But it's super difficult to get him to eat healthier foods.  I regularly require him to try new foods in an attempt to ensure he has adequate nutrition and to expand his circle of interest.  Sometimes that exposure to new foods pays off and he discovers a new healthy food that he enjoys.  I relate this experience to our students.  Oftentimes I think our students don't know that they're interested in subjects because of lack of exposure to them or they don't realize how understanding one concept leads to the ability to understand others.  My understanding of the purpose of high school requirements is that these subjects prepare students to more fully comprehend the world around them and opens their opportunities to deepen their knowledge in the future in specific subject areas if that's what they are interested in doing.  Students need to understand at least basic principles of many different subject areas in order to comprehend the world adequately.  They also need to be exposed to many new ideas in order to determine what really does interest them.  Ultimately, growth requires a certain amount of discomfort, and so discomfort isn't necessarily a bad thing.  While I agree that students need to know that we care about them individually and see them as an individual with individual needs, perhaps we do our students a disservice if we don't allow some struggle and some discomfort.  Perhaps the message needs to be that we are teaching them these concepts because we care about them and that knowing all of the amino acids will help them understand food and nutrition, biology, and many other things that they deal with on a daily basis.  

Hi Stephanie, There are a couple of things you wrote that I'd like to respond to. I agree that some learners " ... don't know that they're interested in subjects because of lack of exposure to them or they don't realize how understanding one concept leads to the ability to understand others." Rather than viewing this situation through a deficit lens, we as teachers can invite learners into a conversation in which they have a voice in exploring various options.

I also agree with your point about our professional responsibility to recognize the value of the struggle in learning. As I alluded to in my earlier post, people experience a great sense of satisfaction when they persevere through the struggle.

What do others think?

Cheers, Susan

 

I read through the full study and the findings are interesting. Research like this is important to better understand the impact of devices, but there are many variables at play. What is the teaching style of the instructor? Do they allow students to drive the lecture/learning? Based on the description the class sounds like a typical sage on the stage environment. The other part that stuck out to me was the use of devices for "non academic purposes." I would like to see a follow-up study where they compare long-term retention in a class that uses laptops/phones for learning. For example, does the instructor poll students through their cell phones during class? Are the students encouraged to research lecture topics on their laptop or collaborate in a shared Google document?

Thanks, Susan, for calling our attention to this study, to everyone who has commented so far and to those who, like me, may just be joining the discussion. Although I have read only the article, not the full study, I wonder how the laptops and cell phones were being used in class. In a different context, I remember in junior high school a classmate who used a dictionary throughout a civics education class. I was engaged in the lecture about complicated process of how and why most bills don't become laws and, for those that do, why and how. As I looked around the class, everyone else except one classmate seemed bored to tears. After class, I asked her what she thought of the class, and what terms she was looking up. She confessed that. late for school, she had mistakenly grabbed a dictionary instead of the novel she had been reading, that driven by the teacher to abject boredom her only escape was to read the definitions of potentially interesting words. I doubt that she learned much about how bills become laws. I also recall a high school class in which an English Language Arts teacher required us to bring dictionaries. In his presentations he would deliberately use words he thought we should know, and would give us time to look them up before continuing the presentation. In that context, the same tool, the dictionary, very likely contributed both to our understanding the essay the teacher was lecturing on, and also increased vocabulary, and led to better dictionary skills.

I believe it makes a difference not just whether or not using technology is encouraged, but how the tools are used. What are the learners doing with the laptops and cell phones they brought to class? Are they reading their email? Are they taking detailed, interactive notes about the presentation on a classroom lecture notes Wiki?  Has the teacher given them an in-class assignment to do some research on the Web? Has the teacher asked them to respond to an on-line survey using Poll Everywhere, a Google Form, or Survey Monkey? Are the survey results instantly displayed, analyzed and discussed by the students?

Also, while it may be interesting to look at the use of technology in higher education, or in K-12 education, don't we need research on what happens when adult basic skills educators ask students to bring laptops and cell phones to class -- and ask them to use these devices in connection with the learning objectives for the lessons?

 

David J. Rosen, Moderator

LINCS CoP, Integrating Technology group

 

 

Hello colleagues, Surely there are studies that focus on the integration of technology into instruction the way Alicia, Ed and David have described. This research may not focus on adult learners in ABE programs--which we need-- but it would still be helpful to learn of such research in K12 or higher ed. There is obviously a huge difference between using a device in class to do things that are not related to the lesson compared to tasks that are directly related to the lesson.

If anyone is aware of relevant research, please let us know.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, Teaching & Learning CoP