A 2014 Student Watch poll from OnCampus Research
reported that 91% of all college students own a laptop and 81% own a
smartphone. What they are doing with those devices in the classroom may come as
a surprise.
To get a sense of how devices are being used in the
classroom, this graphic from information gathered from the Pew Research Center, The Wall Street Journal,
The New York Times, and other studies illustrates the technology and the issues
students and faculty have with it. For instance, 75% of the students said they
are bringing their laptops into the classroom more often, but not necessarily to do things related to classwork.
While 83% of the students said they used their laptops to
take class notes and 81% said they send emails during class, more than 40% said
they used their laptops to surf the Internet and 25% played games. They also
reported spending just six minutes each day on school-based emails and
complained about professors sending emails.
The faculty reported that the benefits of having
electronic devices in the classroom include gaming, online simulations,
blogging and forums, and online learning. However, among the negatives are the
distractions they cause, cheating, and lower grades.
