Interactive lectures: Clickers or personal devices?

Audience response systems (‘clickers’) are frequently used to promote participation in large lecture classes, and evidence suggests that they convey a number of benefits to students, including improved academic performance and student satisfaction. The limitations of these systems (such as limited access and cost) can be overcome using students’ personal electronic devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops together with text message, web- or app-based polling systems. Using questionnaires, we compare student perceptions of clicker and smartphone based polling systems. We find that students prefer interactive lectures generally, but those that used their own device preferred those lectures over lectures using clickers. However, device users were more likely to report using their devices for other purposes (checking email, social media etc.) when they were available to answer polling questions. These students did not feel that this distracted them from the lecture, instead, concerns over the use of smartphones centred around increased battery usage and inclusivity for students without access to suitable technology. Our results suggest that students generally preferred to use their own devices over clickers, and that this may be a sensible way to overcome some of the limitations associated with clickers, although issues surrounding levels of distraction and the implications for retention and recall of information need further investigation

In-Class Laptop Use for Student Learning

While laptops are considered to be effective and critical learning tools, their appropriateness for in-class student learning remains a subject of debate. We examined the effects of behavior strategies regarding in-class laptop use by undergraduate students. The students’ attitudes toward and perspectives on the strategies will be discussed.https://encompass.eku.edu/pedagogicon_postergallery/1013/thumbnail.jp

Engaging the Disengaged: Implementing a No-Tech Policy After Years of Adding Tech to the Classroom

After a decade of adding technology to the classroom, students asking for a laptop ban sent me on a journey of discovery. After a literature review of existing research and a semester of a no-tech policy, I found less tech, not more increases student engagement and learning. Despite more than a dozen studies over the last decade detailing the negative learning effects of laptops in the classroom, the majority of faculty believe that laptop use in class increases learning. I highlight the research findings, explain my experience with the new policy, and provide suggestions on how to attempt your own. I think computers should not be allowed and people should have to take notes manually. —Student course evaluation comment, Fall 2021 After more than a decade of increasing technology use in the classroom, I noticed declines in student engagement. I sought solutions including adding even more technology, but after students asked for a laptop ban and a review of the research on the negative impacts on learning, I decided to implement a no laptop, smartphone, or tablet policy in my classes. Over the years, I have learned to decipher which student comments on evaluations I should take with a grain of salt and which I should do something about. When I first began teaching in 2008, a student comment “use more YouTube” helped me make my courses more engaging. Adding YouTube was just the beginning. Since that first course, my inclination has been to add more tech to my courses. I have used course blogs, student blogs, Twitter discussions, discussion boards, forums, online professional certifications, and in-class software use on laptops. Many instructors aim to speak their student’s language reaching them in ways they want to be reached. We often assume this means more technology. However, in my Fall 2021 semester evaluations, I received a surprising student comment, “I think computers should not be allowed and people should have to take notes manually.” Then I noticed a similar comment in a different course, “I would seriously consider limiting students’ laptop use during class because personally I am a multitasker and a stressor over other assignments and feel like I could learn SO much more if I was being held accountable to pay attention to in-class material.” Keith A. Quesenberry is an associate professor of marketing at Messiah University. He has taught marketing, advertising, and communications classes at Johns Hopkins University, Temple University, and West Virginia University. Before academia, he was a copywriter and associate creative director in the advertising industry

In-class Multitasking among College Students

The use of mobile devices in class has become a common scene on the college campus. The negative effects of in-class multitasking behaviors have been identified in many educational settings, including colleges. This study investigates the factors that drive college students to multitask and seeks to understand the relationship between learning engagement and multitasking behaviors in the classroom. This study also explores whether polychronic traits relate to multitasking behavior. A total of 282 survey samples were collected from college students in Taiwan. The results confirmed our hypotheses: (1) Students’ multitasking motivation, including social and emotional needs, positively relates to their in-class multitasking. (2) Polychronic traits positively relate to in-class multitasking. (3) Learning engagement negatively relates to in-class multitasking behavior. (4) Polychronic traits negatively relate to learning engagement. (5) Low course difficulty level relates to more frequent in-class multitasking behaviors. The implications of the study are also discussed

Investigating Multitasking with Technology in Academic Settings

The presence of multitasking has become more and more prevalent in most if not all aspects of today’s society. This reoccurring display of multitasking is extremely prominent within the classrooms of our nation’s colleges and universities. While supposedly paying attention to lectures and taking efficient notes, students can be seen texting and/or using social media on their phones, or having a wide variety of possible tabs and windows pulled up on their laptops or tablets. This apparent habit of almost every higher-education level student has raised a multitude of questions in various fields of study over the years. It has also provided professors with yet another obstacle that they must overcome to effectively teach their students. In this study, we explore these issues and develop an extensive conceptual model outlining the factors that may impact multitasking with technology in academic settings

In-Class Laptop Use for Student Learning: A Pilot Study

While laptops are considered an effective and critical learning tool, the effects of in-class laptop use on student learning remain controversial. Although many recent studies have found that in-class laptop use may produce negative effects in higher education, college students increasingly utilize their laptops in classrooms. To effectively integrate laptop use into lessons, we examined the effects of behavior strategies concerning in-class laptop use by undergraduate students. Throughout the course of a semester, participants were provided visual prompts, including Red , “Yellow,” and Green codes, in accordance with class activities. The students’ attitudes and perspectives regarding the strategy were surveyed and discussed

Paternalism in Academia

If a policy that is beneficial to most students nevertheless violates autonomy and harms even a minority of students in the process, then it should not be implemented. Banning laptops, requiring attendance, and other similar actions are beneficial to most students, but also violate autonomy and harm a least a minority of students to whom they are applied. Therefore, these policies, such as banning laptops and requiring attendance, should not be implemented