POINT: Technology in the classroom is distracting, inhibits learning - Daily Nebraskan

As a professor prepares to begin their lecture, students are preparing their tools of choice to go about note-taking. As the lesson commences, one student begins converting the lesson into paraphrased segments in his or her trusty notebook. As class goes on, the student can’t help but occasionally lose focus, with a symphony of clicks in the background. The distractions only increase as this student’s neighbors begin checking their Facebook feeds, sending messages and shopping.

From another perspective, a student types away on their laptop. He or she easily keeps up with the professor’s lesson and, as a result, use some class time to respond to his or her emails. As the professor mentions the Arc de Triomphe, the student is able to check for more background information on the topic, all while keeping up with the class. His or her laptop is giving this student the opportunity for enhanced, convenient learning.

The usage of technology such as laptops and phones in the classroom comes with distinct benefits and drawbacks. As a result, some professors have instituted policies encouraging the usage of technology in class while others have attempted to limit or outright ban it.

Technology may offer some advantages in the classroom, but these benefits come at too high of a cost. Unfortunately, the dangerous lures of distraction and the associated disadvantages are too much. Technology should be restricted in the classroom.

In a world of expanding technology, as students have become busier with ever-increasing responsibilities, we have had to find ways to fit our burden into an already packed schedule. In our search for minimizing wasted times, we have chosen that the only solution is to cut corners. We are set on multitasking.

This has impacted the classroom. Sympathetic professors, attempting to alleviate some of the difficulties students have, try to incorporate policies to help guide our learning experience. Popular examples of which have been supplementing learning by uploading powerpoints to Canvas or giving points toward a student’s grade simply for attending lecture.

Yet, these measures have been mistakenly abused by busy students, who add their own agendas to lectures. While a professor may be dissecting the reason why imaginary numbers are important, students may be using class time to write emails to their peers, or browse shopping sites. All the while distracting other students in proximity to their device.

Although many students may insist these distractions are not prevalent for them, the statistics are not on their side. Many studies show that students fall victim to unrelated internet usage. Even law students are not immune to the internet’s calling.

The dilemma that lies at the core of this issue is that these instances are not multitasking. Rather, they are serial tasking, meaning the quick switching back and forth between tasks. Instead of truly listening to what your professor is saying while also writing an email, you are mostly focused on one or the other, missing key information during transitions. Errors also have a higher frequency of being made with frequent transitions, losing up to 40 percent of one’s productivity in the process. Even if a student is not serial tasking, the urges of checking a notification may nag at the back of their mind.

Aside from the ineffective nature of this “multitasking,” it also comes with the price of being disrespectful to a considerate professor. Class resources are usually put online as a way to supplement the learning experience of the classroom by reinforcing information students may have missed in fast paced collegiate learning. They are not intended to be a means to lessen the importance of focusing on the classroom discussion at hand.

Additionally, extensive use of technology can indicate a blatant disconnect between a student and the professor or between students and the rest of the class in discussion. It makes some professors uncomfortable as they see students trying to disguise their phone usage during these open-ended discussions or seeing typing continue on as they ask the class for questions. Problems begin to surface as busy students may ask a professor for clarification on an assignment which the professor covered in the last question.

Perhaps the greatest problem associated with the usage of technology in the classroom is the impact that one’s usage could have on their fellow classmates. In the typical lecture set up, there is little space dividing students from each other’s affairs. Loud music on one’s earphones could probably be heard by their immediate neighbors, while a laptop at the front of the classroom can disrupt a branching cone of students behind the source. It is important for one to realize how their actions may affect others.

Technology proponents do have some valid arguments when discussing the potential benefits laptops and other technology can bring to the classroom. One of which may be that devices can legitimately offer a way to increase the amount of information one may record during a short period of time.

However, more words may not necessarily be better, as the problem comes from the negative impact typing can have on retention. It has been found that taking more time to think about what is written and paraphrasing helps remembrance. Handwriting forces students to paraphrase and extract only the most important information from a lecture rather than simply transcribe a lesson.

Additionally, in a highly competitive program at the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School, more research found that students choosing a laptop over handwriting notes suffered a decline in GPA over those who didn’t.

It seems the problem isn’t necessarily with technology, but rather, with what we as students decide to do with it. With all the stressors that make up a student’s life, it’s hard to place blame on the matter of attempted multitasking, but it is a problem nonetheless. In a perfect world, we would be able to harmonize the positives technology has to offer with the practical usage of technology in the classroom. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case and other students are being affected. This technological symphony is a distraction to higher learning.

Randy Thomas is a communication studies and political science major. Reach him at opinion@dailynebraskan.com or via @DNopinion.

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