Allie Norman Source 2

Allie Norman Source 2

Citation: Kraushaar, James M., and David C. Novak. "Examining The Affects Of Student Multitasking With Laptops During The Lecture." Journal Of Information Systems Education 21.2 (2010): 241-251. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

Question: What role does student usage of technology, such as laptops in the classroom, play in shaping the academic experiences and success of college students?

Initial thoughts: Even though I don’t want to admit it, I know that I get distracted during long lectures and sometimes even subject myself to the distractions that my laptop holds. Such as, browsing the internet in lieu of boredom, pop-up emails and messages in the corner of my screen, or just looking for apps to download, we’ve all been there. Even though I may get distracted, I don’t automatically walk into class with a mindset of not doing work today, or multitasking with unrelated content. I usually walk into class prepared to take notes for the duration of the period over what I’m learning

The title of the second source I’m using caught my eye because it talks about the effects of multitasking with laptops during a lecture. This topic is closely related to my first source and I am able to compare both of them. While the other source is self-report only, this article is self-report and the subjects are also monitored closely with a camera to get accurate representation of what college students are actually doing during a lecture.

Step 2

Paragraph 1; Summarize:

This paper monitors university students’ uses of laptops in the classroom during a lecture and their multitasking activities through the use of self-report surveys and spyware installed in the students’ laptops. Researchers categorize the multitasking activities into course-related and non-course related activities and monitor the frequency and duration of off-topic and topic-related multitasking to get a better understanding of how much damage distractions can do in hindering university students’ academic performance.

Paragraph 2; Think:

While reading this article, I tried to keep an open mind. When I walk into a lecture hall, my first thought is about getting prepared to take notes for the duration of the period. I don’t assume I’m going to get distracted and decide that I’m going to waste 42% of my time consumed in multitasking activities. As I read through the article, I noticed a couple things mentioned that I can align with myself, as when the researchers talked about students’ switching their cognitive focus from task to lecture and task to lecture again. They documented that no matter the multitasking activity, lecture related or non-lecture related, that it takes more time and effort to refocus on the lecture after switching activities. I found myself agreeing with this statement, I have a hard time focusing too. When I switch from task to lecture again, I still find myself thinking about other things for quite some time after I have “switched gears” back to the lecture. These distractions don’t only prove to hinder my learning in the moment it’s happening, when I’ve been switching back and forth instead of paying attention, I’m unable to remember what I’ve learned even if I thought I was paying attention or I wrote it down. I was looking and writing, an automatic task, but my mind wasn’t there fully paying attention.

Paragraph 3; Synthesize:

This source, I think, is much more credible than my last source. The last article I used was based on self-reported surveys that discussed their classroom multitasking habits, which isn’t always accurate. Self- report surveys are great for viewing a large scope of students, but they are in danger of downplaying their actual habits in light of the socially acceptable response, they might want to look good on paper, even if they may not be the best student. This article examines the same type of behavior, lecture related and non-lecture related, but the researchers use two types of measures, self-report and researcher monitoring. The evidence of the two articles coincide, they are both concluding that laptops can be very distracting things as they are both coming up with the same distractions and same concluding evidence. This article reveals a new approach because they talk about the duration of the time spent on distractions and how frequently students shuffle from one to the other versus the other article where they don’t look into that.

Paragraph 4; Question and plan:

From here, for my next source, I need to find an article that talks about the benefits of the allowance of laptops in the classroom setting. Are the distractions that are purely non-classroom/lecture related causing more of a detriment to academic learning than lecture related distractions? Or do all distractions have the same effect on students? For my paper to be successful, I feel like I need to look into this material.