Multi-tasking with tech in class distracting for students

(N.J.) As more districts allow students to use tablets, laptops and smartphones to take notes, supplement their lessons and modernize curriculum, new research suggests such multitasking reduces the ability to retain information in the long run.

Researchers from Rutgers University found that those who used electronic devices in class scored about a half a letter grade lower on unit and final exams–a difference between passing or failing a course for some students.

“Dividing attention between an electronic device and the classroom lecture did not reduce comprehension of the lecture,” wrote Arnold Glass, the study’s lead researcher. “Instead, divided attention reduced long-term retention of the classroom lecture, which impaired subsequent unit exam and final exam performance.”

Perhaps more noteworthy, the use of digital devices by some students even impaired the performance of their nearby peers who didn’t use laptops or cellphones themselves during class.

In the group that was permitted to use electronic devices, a handful of students chose not to. However, because the majority of their peers used laptops and tablets, Glass said that “for the few students who tried to direct attention to the instructor there was distracting activity on both sides and in front of them.”

Although the report was conducted in a college setting, the results are relevant to K-12 policymakers. A nationally representative Gallup poll conducted earlier this year showed that 42 percent of K-12 teachers feel that the use of digital devices in the classroom is “mostly helpful” for students, while only 28 percent reported that it is “mostly harmful.”

In response to growing demands for a more tech-ready workforce, district leaders have increasingly begun to re-examine their use of technology in the classroom. Some schools in New York, Florida, West Virginia, California, Utah and Indiana have transitioned to fully-digital textbooks. Others, meanwhile, have adopted plans that provide every student with a laptop or other device that allows them to access online content at home and on campus.

Subjects of the Rutgers study included 118 upper-level college students divided into two groups, with each enrolled in the same course, taught the same material by the same instructor, in the same classroom at roughly the same time of day.

One group was allowed to use laptops and cell phones in class, and the other group wasn't.

The groups performed about the same on in-class quizzes given just after materials had been presented in lecture, suggesting that short-term retention wasn’t negatively impacted by the use of digital devices.

On periodic tests and a final exam, however, the group that was permitted to use a laptop, tablet or cell phone scored about a half a letter grade lower than their peers. Even those who chose not to use such devices scored lower–likely due to distraction from surrounding devices, according to researchers.

Glass said the results express a minimum reduction in exam performance because the class used quizzes immediately after the lessons to help students remember course material instead of just passive listening and because the material covered in class was also available in the textbook. In a course where classwork was supplemental to the textbook–rather than presenting redundant information–students in the experimental group would likely would have fared even worse.

“Many dedicated students think they can divide their attention in the classroom without harming their academic success,” Glass said in a statement. “To help manage the use of devices in the classroom, teachers should explain to students the damaging effect of distractions on retention–not only on themselves, but for the whole class.”

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