Smartphones positive addition to classrooms

The prevalence of college students’ smartphones is well known. Less known is how this ubiquitous communication device provides professors with unparalleled opportunities to improve the effectiveness of learning in their classrooms.

Some students use their smartphones for personal reasons during class, hiding them under desks, books, or papers.

They may think they can pay attention to professors and use their phones for personal activities simultaneously, however, students who multitask earn lower grades. Human beings cannot multitask; they shift attention from one task to another.

Therefore, they are not present to learn. Some professors use class time to confront these students in an effort to encourage them to pay attention. This approach is like a homeowner who tries everything to stop water from seeping into his or her or their basement but keeps failing when the right thing to do is to let the water flow in, successfully channel it to a drain, and pump it out to water the lawn.

Lectures and classroom activities designed to incorporate smartphones yield positive results. Smartphones are excellent tools to improve learning. Professors may use newspaper columns as case studies. Professors direct students to current newspaper columns that relate to the subject matter for that particular class. Students get up-to-date information regarding cases that bring the lecture information alive.

I also encourage students to take pictures of the information I write on the board and information projected on the screen that is not in the textbook. This allows students to pay attention instead of trying to take notes of everything that I write on the board or present on the screen.

If professors embrace smartphone technology, the opportunities to advance students’ learning are endless.

Kevin Synnott, lecturer, Department of Business Administration, Eastern Connecticut State University