Abstract:

The last few years are witnessing a major debate in the educational field over whether the use of laptops and other mobile devices (such as tablets) during class hinder or support a more effective learning. In general, it is assumed that laptops and other mobile devices can be an important learning tool in class. However, anecdotal evidence reveals that an increasing number of teachers are banning laptops and other types of mobile devices from their classroom because they are noticing that these devices distract and significantly worse student performance. There are many empirical studies confirming these teachers’ perceptions. We conduct a review of most this prior research.

Our study seeks to contribute to this lively debate by exploring whether there are significant differences in academic performance between groups of students frequently using and not using laptops (or tablets) during class. We use a sample of undergraduate students from a large Spanish university. But, in marked contrast to most prior studies, these students are distributed in three different classes. In each class there is a group of students using laptops or tablets during class and other group that never use them. These students have three different teachers and are also in different years of study. And they also take three different subjects.

Our findings are mixed. For one class we find that there are statistically significant differences between the groups of students using and not using laptops or tablets during class; students using them achieve higher grades. For the second class, we find just the opposite. Finally, for the third class we also find that there are not statistically significant differences in the final grades between the groups of students using and not using laptops or tablets during class.

Overall, these results provide empirically important support to suggest that in-class laptop utilization is a complex issue that needs to be evaluated very carefully. These results lead us to suggest the need of controlling for different characteristics in future research, such as, for instance, specific subject, year of study or even teacher. Accordingly, this study can provide some preliminary guidelines for better understanding when the use of mobile devices during class might be particularly helpful for students. The implications of our findings in relation to recent literature on the topic are also discussed.

Keywords:

Laptops, mobile devices, academic performance, effective learning.