Surfing the Web in class? Bad idea
Even
the smartest college students suffer academically when they use the Internet in
class for non-academic purposes, finds new research by Michigan State
University
The
study, funded by the National Science Foundation, speaks to typical
lecture-hall culture in which professors compete for students’ attention with
laptops and smartphones.
“Students
of all intellectual abilities should be responsible for not letting themselves
be distracted by use of the Internet,” said Susan Ravizza, associate professor
of psychology and lead investigator on the study.
Ravizza
and colleagues studied non-academic Internet use in an introductory psychology
class at MSU with 500 students. The working theory: Heavy Internet users with
lower intellectual abilities – determined by ACT scores – would perform worse
on exams. Past research suggests smarter people are better at multitasking and
filtering out distractions.
But
surprisingly, that wasn’t the case. All students, regardless of intellectual
ability, had lower exam scores the more they used the Internet for non-academic
purposes such as reading the news, sending emails and posting Facebook updates.
Ravizza said that might be because Internet use is a different type of multitasking, in that it can be so engaging.
The
study also showed students discounted the effects of Internet use on academic
performance, reinforcing past findings that students have poor awareness of how
their smartphones and laptops affect learning.
Ravizza
said it would be nearly impossible to attempt to ban smartphones or other
electronic devices from lecture halls. “What would you do, have hundreds of
people put their cell phones in a pile and pick them up after class?” Such a
ban might also be a safety issue, since cell phones have become a primary
source of receiving emergency messages.
The
study appears in the online version of the journal Computers & Education.
Researchers Zach Hambrick and Kimberly Fenn, both from MSU’s Department of
Psychology, were co-authors. –
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