Does Costly Cell Phones Affect Student Performance?

In the article, Carr refers to tests done be professors on college students. In one experiment, students had to take a test and some were told to either have their phone on the desk, others in their bag or pocket, and the rest in another room. The outcome showed higher scores for those whose phone was in a different room, then those whose phone was in their bag or pocket, then those whose phone was on the desk. Carr found the results “striking” and even went as far to say that as the proximity of the phone increased, the brain power decreased. Another test he refers to is one done in the University of Essex, in England. which was held to study social skills with the presence of a phone. The test revealed that “the mere presence of mobile phones” reduced trust and empathy. A third test he explains in his article is one with a group of strangers. They were told to type statements into a computer. Half were told that what they typed would be deleted, and the other half were told that what they typed would

2. The hypothesis of the article “effects of classroom cell phone: use on expected and actual learning”, is if a person will get distracted if they are using their phone while doing an activity.

First, I believe this because students can get easily distracted by phones. Students don’t pay much attention to the teacher’s lesson and are disturbed by all the notifications they receive. Some examples of how they can get distracted are social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc. Texting in class can also get students easily distracted from school work. Students tend to lack amount of sleep since they stay on their phone for most of the night.

Scaccia states, “One reason students fail is because of distractions in the classroom, specifically the cell phone.” The author is implying that students are using cell phones in class and its taking away from their learning. From my experiences in high school, teachers would stop in the middle of a statement to ask students repeatedly to put their phones away. As a result, teachers would lose track of what they were explaining. A student and teacher moving at the same pace through a lesson is the best way for a student to take proper notes, ask questions, and understand the information giving. Having to stop over and over throws the class flow off balance. Teachers can become frustrated because classes run on a schedule and they may lose out on time. I wasn’t someone that used my cell phone in class, so it was very frustrating and hard to stay focused when my train of thought was interrupted by those on their phone. When the teacher would suddenly stop to address the student using the cellphone, the entire class is now focused on that student. This would happen several times in a 45 minute class period. When it came time to complete my homework, my notes were incomplete and I couldn’t recall key points. I agree that cell phones are huge distraction, but I don’t think banning them all together is the right thing to do.

Cell phones have affected our learning. Cell phones have become a ubiquitous presence on college campuses and are arguably considered distractions. Recent research has been devoted to better understanding the perceptions of cell phone use among college level faculty and students as well as the consequences of cell phones in classrooms.

According to Lenhart, in 2012 three quarters of teens, ages 12-17, owned cell phones. Of those teens, twenty three percent of them indicated they possessed a smartphone. With the technology advancing in cell phones, it has become yet another classroom distraction and a serious concern for cheating. With cell phones on hand, it has created an easy way to become distracted during class. Assistant Professor Campbell from the University of Kansas brought to attention, “one study found that a third of university students in the US play video games on their mobile phones and laptops during class (Gilroy, 2004 as cited in Katz, 2005).” The majority of researchers have found that mobile phones have lead to problematic use in the school environment

The usage of cellphones has affected some student’s learning and it has affected the schools. The grade schools have not enabled their students to use telephones in class since telephones gain their attention from their lessons leading to devastating teaching. Young children who convey their telephone to class damage the school control and their telephones will be picked up by the instructor. Cell phones have substantially more capacities and applications which prompt a greater impact on school’s education. Roman adds in her article that “Television, computers, tablets, and phones all influence the amount of time a child spends studying for school.” This means that if there are children using technology instead of studying it can affect their grades in school because instead of using their time wisely they are using it to harm their learning. There will be more students bringing home bad grades due to not going over their notes and learn the material from school.

The article focuses on the distraction of mobile devices in the college classroom. Brenner explains that they are distracting to not only the person using them, but the people around them as well. Through her research, she found that the people sitting next to multitaskers on their laptops tended to score lower on tests than those without the distraction. On that note, she states that people “are not wired to multi task”. Through a study, she found that texting during lectures caused a decrease in student’s ability to take notes, pay attention, and perform well on tests. She also found that the use of laptops

Many students have used their cell phones to share answers to tests and quizzes, and to report inaccurate and offensive information about other students and their school. Cell phones can be distractions in the school environment, evading classroom time and reducing student’s academic success.

After not receiving significant reactions to the message tone we decided to use phone calls. While using phone calls the action of checking their phones increased from two people to seven. This informed us that the main factors that affected this experiment was volume level of the phone. While I sat within the class I could not hear the other experimenters text tones this affected the results entirely. Some participants look around as if they were confused whether they heard something or not. Only students who responded by checking their phones were, the ones who sat directly across from the experimenter with the text alert going

cell phone rings on academic performance. After completing the study, they said, “Findings indicated that cell phone rings during a video presentation impaired academic performance. Specifically, participants in the ringing condition performed worse on disrupted test items and were less likely to have recorded pertinent test information” (End, Worthman, Matthews, & Wetterau, 2010, p. 55-57). The study shows that just the ringer on a cell phone alone can have an impact on how a student takes notes. However, not everyone thinks that cell phones are a bad idea. Authors Kevin Thomas and Blanche Obannon wrote an article titled ‘Cell Phones in The Classroom: Preservice Teachers’

One problem with cell phones in today’s society is that they have become major distractions. Cell phones are distracting employees in the workplace and are leaving them with their jobs halfway done. Everywhere in the business industries, the employees are hard at work re-tweeting and catching up on the latest newsfeed rather than managing their time more wisely. Not only are cell phones a distraction in the workplace, they are also a distraction and disruptive in school districts, causing students’ attention to be elsewhere. Many students would rather text in the middle of class instead of pay attention to what the teacher is reviewing. In this case, students do not gain the amount of education provided for them. In addition to cell phones being distracting, people often like to multi-task by walking or driving while texting. These things cause them to be unaware of their surroundings. Texting while driving has become a major issue because texting and driving can lead to car crashes which are often fatal. On the other hand, texting and walking isn’t too bad, but can cause a little bit of embarrassment. There are stories of people walking into walls and bumping into people or tripping over a table because their nose seems to be stuck in their phone. To some, being on their cell phone is more important than grades, clients, and others around them.

When a cell phone rings in a class, not only does it disrupt the class but it also breaks everyone’s concentration. Students can use cell phones to exchange work or answers in an examination or in a class.

Cell phones and technology in general has advanced a lot over the last ten years. Allowing students to be able to take their phones or devices wherever they want in today’s society. Thus bringing forward the issue of cell phone distraction in the classroom.

Teenagers who use their cellphones very often will have their academic progress negatively affected due to being distracted. It is not a rare occurrence for teenagers to have their phones with them while they are in class, but that is mainly because many of them do not realize the impact it is having on their grades. Researchers, Christian M. End, Shaye Worthman, Mary Bridget Matthews, and Katharina Wetterau at Xavier University did a study about the impact of cell phone rings on academic performance. After completing the study they said, “Findings indicated that cell phone rings during a video presentation impaired academic performance. Specifically, participants in the ringing condition performed worse on disrupted test items and were less likely to have recorded pertinent test information” (End, Worthman, Matthews, & Wetterau, 2010, p. 55-57). The study shows that just the ringer on a cell phone alone can