Impact of Mobile Phone Usage on Student Learning

Yesterday, I wrote about LeBron James becoming the new NBA all-time scoring leader. A new photo has gone viral since James broke the four-decades-old record, but it isn’t of James’ fadeaway jumper that cliched the milestone.

Rather, it’s one of Nike co-founder Phil Knight.

Before I discuss that picture, I’ve tried to write about the benefits of living in the moment here and here. These previous posts tried to articulate the importance of living in the moment, when you’re fully present and aware of the emotions and thoughts that you have at that time. If you’re not living in the moment, then your thoughts are either turned towards the past or fixated on the future.

Of course, it’s human nature to think about the past or future. Looking back helps us understand ourselves, allows us to examine choices we made, and prevents us from making similar mistakes over and over. Looking to the future helps us understand what’s to come, plan our next steps, and prepare for them.

However, when you get caught up in nostalgia and anxiety, your past or future thoughts may prevent you from focusing on the present. When you don’t focus on what’s happening in the “now,” then you’re missing out on what you’re doing, what you’re seeing, and what you’re taking in.

There are lots of distractions that can pull your attention away from the present, like mobile phones.

A classroom experiment at Rutgers University showed that students in a lecture section where mobile phone usage was allowed scored 5% lower on the final exam compared to students in another section where no devices were allowed.

Another study looked at the examined the impact of mobile phone usage on student learning during class and found similar results:

Participants in three different study groups (control, low-distraction, and high-distraction) watched a video lecture, took notes on that lecture, and took two learning assessments after watching the lecture. Students who were not using their mobile phones wrote down 62% more information in their notes, took more detailed notes, were able to recall more detailed information from the lecture, and scored a full letter grade and a half higher on a multiple choice test than those students who were actively using their mobile phones.

Now, what is it about that Phil Knight photo that’s made it gone viral?

Knight was sitting courtside next to James’ sons, Bronny and Bryce. While nearly everyone in the arena was holding up a smartphone to record James’ record-breaking moment, Knight had his hands in his lap and a smile emerging on his face. He was one of the few in the arena to appreciate history with this own eyes instead of through the lens of his electronic device.

Let’s circle back to the bar preparation. You can’t do away with others’ device usage, but you focus on what you can control by creating a distraction-free learning environment.

If you aren’t using your smartphone for a studying purpose, consider turning it off. Or, at least, silence it and put it away where you can’t see the screen.