It is not unusual for lecture classes to be filled with students checking their text messages, playing games, responding to emails and updating their Facebook statuses all with the touch of their fingertips.
Lynn Fujiwara, an ethnic studies and women and gender studies professor at University of Oregon, is all too familiar with this phenomenon.
Fujiwara has a no phone or electronics policy, unless students have documented reasons for how electronic use can enhance their learning.
“Honestly, I find it completely annoying and disrespectful,” Fujiwara said. “I understand how dependent we are on our phones, but they’re putting a lot of resources into their education. Why short change yourself by not paying attention in class?”
Investigators from the lab of Larry Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, conducted a 15-minute experiment in which they marked down once a minute what students were doing as they did class work. The checklist included: writing on paper, texting, typing on the computer, using emails, engaging with social media and surfing the web.
They noticed that students’ “on-task behavior” started to decline at the two-minute mark as they began responding to text messages and looking at their Facebook feeds. At the end of this experiment, the students had only spent about 65 percent of their time committing to their schoolwork.
David Meyer, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan who focuses on the effects of divided attention on learning, said that the brain is not able to complete two complex tasks efficiently at the same time.
“Listening to a lecture and being on Facebook is very demanding, and each of them uses the same area of the brain, the prefrontal cortex,” Meyer said.
Although studies show that using electronics in the classroom can be detrimental to one’s learning, some UO professors have incorporated the use of cell phones to their lesson plans.
Patrick Moneyang, a UO French language instructor, is aware of the risks that come with allowing cell phone usage in the classroom, but believes that when used effectively can advance students’ learning.
Moneyang prefers students to not interrupt the class with translation questions. He would rather have students find these definitions for themselves.
“We live in the digital age and the class should be a laboratory where students experience and learn about their time,” he said. “I use PowerPoint with constant access to YouTube and other material available online.”
Although these professors prefer their students to either lose their phones or use them productively, some UO students feel that they can uphold the phone habit.
“I text in class a lot when I feel tired. A lot of people do it,” said junior Rose Leng. “It’s possible to use your phone and listen at the same time. It’s just not as good as giving your full attention to the professor.”
Although she rarely uses her phone in the classroom, junior Gabriela Saldaña also believes that students have the right to make their own choices when it comes to using phones in the classroom.
“Personally, I don’t care if other students use their phones,” she said. “If they choose to be on their phone for an entire lecture and not pay attention, that’s on them.”