Laptops In School: How Students Are Really Using Their Computers During Class

How are students really using their laptops in class? To find out some professors have conducted studies that involved "spying" on their students.

Inside Higher Ed reports on a recent study conducted by University of Vermont business professors James Kraushaar and David Novak to examine whether in-class technology affects learning.

The professors had the participants install monitoring software (referred to by the professors as "spyware") on their laptops to provide a glimpse at their in-class browsing activities. Students were found to be using e-mail clients, instant messaging apps, and surfing the web on sites unrelated to the coursework.

According to Inside Higher Ed, "The average student in the Vermont study cycled through a whopping 65 new, active windows per lecture, nearly two-thirds of which were classified as 'distractive.' (One student averaged 174 new windows per lecture.)"

Instant messaging apparently had the worst affect on students' grades. "High rates of instant-messaging activity," writes Inside Higher Ed, "showed significant correlations with poor performances on all but one test during the semester." What's more, instant message users tended to claim that they never used messaging apps in class, even though they had been observed doing so.

Kraushaar and Novak admit that their students, aware they were being monitored, may have modified their browsing habits. Another study, however, didn't ask permission.

St. John's University law professor Jeff Sovern hired people to literally look over students' shoulders to observe laptop habits in class.

Sovern observed a total of 1,072 laptop users from six different courses over 60 class sessions. According to his findings, laptops create an enormous distraction for students.

From Inside High Ed:

Sovern's spies found that more than half of second- and third-year law students who came to class with laptops used the computers for non-class purposes more than half the time, compared to a mere 4 percent of first-year students. For the most part, first-year students tended to be rapt when text was being read aloud or a rule was being discussed, and less attentive when classmates were asking questions; upper-level students tended to be distractible no matter what was going on.

Sovern banned laptops from his second- and third-year classes as a result of this study.

Visit Inside Higher Ed for more information on these studies, their methodologies and their conclusions.

Comments

[Adam Reid]

09:44 AM on 05/22/2011

Any good student knows what distracts them and what doesn't. Any bad student's grades will reflect how they misused their time in class. why do you need to install malware in your student's computers to prove that?

[hswanson2]

08:54 PM on 05/22/2011

Because it is science and just because it makes sense doesn't mean it is so. Otherwise we would still believe the sun revolves around the earth. Also the students knew what they were installing so it wasn't malware.

[phredralf]

09:35 AM on 05/22/2011

Let classroom learning techniques play out naturally. Maybe WiFi could be a new way for interactive learning and student/teacher participation. Require all students using laptops to be running the interactive classroom app, maybe a liveblog of student feedback, calling on students directly through their computer, messages on the screen asking them to participate, live link examples by students, whatever, be creative. If students are distracted in this hyper-short attention span environment, let's up the ante and engage them at their speed.
Turn the distraction of the outside world into an engaging, collaborative, multimedia community lecture.

[karonprice]

11:16 PM on 05/21/2011

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but don't college student pay to be in class? If they want to screw around and waste their money, why should we care. Back when I went to college there were students who sat there and daydreamed or just didn't show up. Guess what, they did poorly in the course. College students are adults. If they want to play around on FB let them. The only objection I would have is during test time, when they might try to use the computer to cheat.

[hilaritee]

11:04 PM on 05/22/2011

why? because some professors work very hard and take their jobs as educators seriously. it is frustrating and disheartening to spend all week working on the most effective ways to reach your students only to be ignored. this behavior is distracting to other students who resent their peers playing scrabble on facebook while they are working hard. also, many students are pursuing careers that will directly impact the lives of others, such as education and nursing; it is frightening to see them not pay attention during class.

[logic-a-go-go]

12:13 AM on 05/23/2011

Because this type of activity distracts everyone sitting around, who becomes drawn in to whatever that individual is doing. Even the professor can be distracted by seeing many sets of eyes focused on the laptop user, rather than on the professor. This ultimately can distract a majority of a class when you have multiple students doing this. Many professors ban laptop and cell phone use, and this quickly resolves the issue, creating a technology-free safe zone for learning, debate, and interaction.

[LayneTrain]

05:29 PM on 05/20/2011

people who instant message more are likely to be more social and get worse grades... if they werent messaging during class they would be doing something else

[InvisiTech]

01:01 PM on 05/20/2011

At Appleby College in Oakville ON Canada (www.appleby.on.ca), we are in our in the 13th year of a 1:1 program where every Gr7-12 student has a tablet pc which is used extensively for schoolwork. Homework is received, completed and submitted via computer.

At Appleby, we do not block websites, but will pop up a reminder window when students try to use social media, games, or streaming video during class times. The goal is two-fold... first to make them think about their actions and make a smart choice (which is the ultimate behaviour we desire) and secondly, make them aware that they are not invisible on the Internet... that monitoring equipment is in place everywhere (for network and bandwidth management). We are only being upfront that the equipment exists.

Has the computer hurt their learning experience? In our last graduating class,120 our of 140 students had an 85% or higher average, and over 85% of our graduates got into their first choice of university (some of which included Harvard and Oxford).

The pop up window reminder had a major positive effect on the way the computers are used during class. There is still kids who log onto Facebook, but they know there is a log of it.

Computers can be a major distraction if your idea of technology involves handing computers to kids without understanding around how the technology can assist in achieving learning outcomes.

[craigmack]

12:40 PM on 05/20/2011

And students wonder why they can't find a job after graduation. They are only hurting themselves. Not to mention the outrageous tuition fees that they have wasted.

[menschmaschine5]

12:46 PM on 05/21/2011

Well, jobs are scarce these days, college graduates are often unwilling to take service jobs at first, and often people end up going to college just to go to college rather than to learn a skill. Employers these days aren't looking for people who just graduated with a B.A. or an English degree.

I've heard it said time and again recently that it's not so much that jobs are scarce as the fact that no one has the skills to fill the jobs. This isn't because they're wasting their time in class, but because so many students are pursuing useless degrees.

[PenguinLinux]

11:14 AM on 05/20/2011

"Sure.. I'll install spy-on-me.exe for you.... oh wait... I don't run Windows so your piece of crapola spyware won't work on my nice, fast, clean, stable Linux box. By the way, isn't running Windows itself considered spyware? Well, to anyone knowledgeable about Security, it most certainly is."

[NotBob]

09:34 PM on 05/20/2011

F&F!

[DaneAZ]

05:12 AM on 05/20/2011

Major "DUH!" moment here.

[any mouse]

02:46 AM on 05/20/2011

Simple solution - kill the Wifi in the classrooms and block Cell data (not legal in the US, but easy to do)..

Once all wireless data is blocked, the students can only use the laptops for taking notes and playing games that are loaded on their systems.

[PenguinLinux]

11:11 AM on 05/20/2011

Assuming there isn't a wireless network nearby that isn't disabled, or there isn't a CAT5 jack on the wall to plug into, that idea might work. Even a "secured" wireless can be broken into easily.

[littleye]

12:14 PM on 05/21/2011

agree completely! Why do you need wifi in the classroom?

http://www.getlittleye.com

[logic-a-go-go]

12:15 AM on 05/23/2011

Professors and even guest lecturers often utilize internet sites in the classroom.

[carly after]

01:13 AM on 05/20/2011

I use my netbook in almost every class to take notes. I occasionally will check facebook or my email, but only when the professor is going over something that I already understand or a student asks a question about something that I already understand or a really irrelevant question.

[susou]

12:26 AM on 05/20/2011

Well, I could've told you that! you don't need spyware!
And besides, if the students are surfing the web, then there's something wrong with the class?
Some classes are just boring, and the professor just stands in front of the class like a fish.
If you make the subject interesting, then the students will follow along.

[logic-a-go-go]

12:19 AM on 05/23/2011

Not true. Many students are positively addicted to technology. I've seen students repeatedly check their phones during a short movie, even when pointedly told to put them away, as if they can't control their impulse to check their phones. It has become an addiction to some.

[MAJK]

10:34 PM on 05/19/2011

Tyranny of the majority strikes again. Blanket bans suck for the 1/3 of students that actually come to class to learn.

[menschmaschine5]

01:10 AM on 05/20/2011

This, of course, assumes that everyone who checks Facebook when they get bored in a lecture isn't there to learn. Everyone gets bored in boring classes. Just because they're not doing something unrelated on a computer doesn't mean they're paying attention; they could be daydreaming or staring at a hot member of the opposite (or, in some cases, same) sex across the room. I'm certainly guilty of web surfing in boring classes, but that's not because I wasn't there to learn. I never even brought my laptop to classes I found interesting.

The problem is that universities often hire professors based on their recognition in and knowledge of their respective field (meaning their writing) rather than on their ability to teach. I remember one specific case in college of a professor I had who was obviously very smart and knew quite a lot about his subject matter, but couldn't teach it to save his life. It was a subject I found interesting, too, just not the way he taught it.

[Reticent2]

08:26 PM on 05/20/2011

Sure. Students have not changed, do not waste time, and are such good sources of reliable info about courses. I also have swamp land for sale. . .

[logic-a-go-go]

12:21 AM on 05/23/2011

The same problem since the beginning of time. You just sit through those classes and get out of them what you can. To distract others by playing games or answering email on your laptop only adds to the problem.

[John Crane]

09:22 PM on 05/19/2011

I don't know how you could call it a "laptop" when you use it on a desk. Why isn't it then a notebook. If I were back in college today, my ideal device would be a tablet upon which I could scribble notes, using a stylus, which would be instantly scanned into text, which I could study later. It would also be nice if I could store, annotate, and reference my text books during the lecture, a camera for capturing diagrams from the blackboard, and a search engine where I could look up corroborative material during the lecture.

[any mouse]

02:48 AM on 05/20/2011

handwriting to text takes a lot of horsepower, so either your battery life would suffer or you would have a lot of errors.

[Adirondacker]

03:01 AM on 05/23/2011

Not if you use a pencil and pad.

[InvisiTech]

01:02 PM on 05/20/2011

Check out the Livescribe pen, (www.livescribe.com) designed by a fellow who's MIT prof spoke so fast, he had trouble keeping up. I'm not a vendor of these pens, but an avid user.

[bryanzth]

07:30 PM on 05/19/2011

Whew. I dunno. What kind of class is it? A large lecture? Well, then the profe is more like a talking head, no different than having Discovery or NatGeo on in the corner of your eye. And you CAN multi-task that and presumeably do very well. Depends on the subject and on the out-of-classroom materials used in practicing and performing the new knowledge. One could in a mult-task situation get the highlights, the emotional dotting of the "i" and crossing of the "t".

Ah, but if it's a seminar class, I would, as a teacher want laptops closed. iPads (etc.) could be open, however, given the size and flatness. When I watch a program, I browse. If it's about a famous person, event or place, as the show is going, I have the TEXT BEING READ sometimes in front of me before the narrator speaks. And I can see maps, graphics or tables IN REAL TIME with the narration. Likewise, in a  seminar class, I could do the same thing and then use that for contribution!!! I could show the map in my question, comment or contribution, or the graphic or image. I would prefer students to use a tablet for two reasons: It's not covering their faces AND I can walk and talk and glance at the content, hehehe.

You know, I would even consider having laptops or tablets available for tests (depending on the subject and depending on the style of the test). Of course, the product of the test would be very much different than the teach-the-test tests, right? It would be a creative production by the student, not a spitting back of stuff.

It's another part of the same battle with PCs vs. handheld and tablet computing devices. There is a sea-change of thinking that will be taking place in the next 10 years, boys and girls!!!

Be happy! Drink coffee and have a cookie!

BZ.

[logic-a-go-go]

12:23 AM on 05/23/2011

Many studies have shown that there is no such thing as multitasking well. Most people who think they are doing it, are simply short-changing and deluding themselves.

[DMSmith]

07:10 PM on 05/19/2011

This is pure BS!
Note "Instant messaging apparently had the worst affect on students' grades."
Yet, they have not shown any correlation between surfing during class and a student's grades. This is NOT what the figures show. It is only an assumption without any corroborating evidence or discussion.
So sloppy as to be idiotic.