The March 2013 study published in the journal “Computers & Education” indicates that several students who chose laptops over traditional pen and paper during lectures had lower grades.  Furthermore, the study suggests that laptop use lowered the marks of classmates who were not using computers.

The study focused on two experiments in which students attended a lecture and then completed a multiple-choice test to gauge what they had learned.

The first experiment was designed to investigate how multitasking affects learning.  The participants were undergraduate students taking an Introductory Psychology course and received course credit for participating in the experiment.  All students used laptops to take notes during a forty-five-minute lecture on meteorology.  However, half were also asked to engage in a series of non-related online tasks on their computers. These tasks were designed to mimic typical student browsing activity during class in terms of both quality and quantity.

In the second experiment, some students were given a pen and paper to take notes during the lecture while others worked on laptops. The purpose of this experiment was to observe if the students taking notes the traditional way would be distracted by having students using computers around them.

The first exercise of carrying out online tasks while listening to the lecture and taking notes significantly impeded the students’ ability to retrieve information when writing the test.  This was attributed to “poor encoding during learning”, which was confirmed by the multitaskers’ poorer quality of notes, and their inefficiency at allocating resources due to their hindered attention.  The students in the first experiment who were asked to multitask averaged 11 percent lower on their quiz.

In Experiment 2, participants were distracted by the laptop screens in their peripheral vision as they listened, watched, and took notes.  The laptop screens appeared to have prevented the participants from completely focusing on the lecture. Although these students were still able to take notes, a reduction in their ability to focus inevitably thwarted the quality and quantity of the information they jotted down.  The students in the second experiment who were surrounded by laptops scored 17 percent lower.

According to a post-research survey, students who sat next to multitaskers had no idea they were being distracted.  Although they were not aware they were being distracted by the nearby laptops, their final test scores indicated otherwise.

The study elucidates two main problems relating to the use of laptops in schools with hampered academic performance:

1. Students with laptops in schools could potentially be spending more class time doing things unrelated to the lecture, the course, or academics altogether.
2. Laptops in schools could pose a considerable distraction for other students.

I personally feel this has less to do with technology and more to do with the students’ ability to stay focused. One would naturally presume those students equipped with a laptop are more exposed to potential distractions. Some of you may say that ultimately it comes down to how much the student wants to learn, and how much control they have over themselves. We live in a world rife with technology and media.  Laptop computers and other high-tech gadgets have become dominant and customary parts of our lives.  Perhaps we should find a way to function amidst all the distractions.