Effects of multitasking on long-term learning
In a survey by Fried (2008), students who said they used laptops in class tended to be those with lower grades, perhaps related to Ragan et al.'s (2014) finding that students’ use of laptops in class was off-task 63% of the time. Ravizza, Hambrick and Fenn (2014) found that students who multitasked on the internet more in class obtained lower grades. Junco (2012) found no effect on grades for students who said their main methods of multitasking in class were email, instant messaging or surfing the web. However students who said they texted or used Facebook did have lower grades than expected.
So multitasking in class is associated with poorer performance. It seems likely that the distracting temptations offered by electronic media, particularly the strong social pull, simply diverts attention away from class learning activities, similar to what has been observed in the short term.
So multitasking in class is associated with poorer performance. It seems likely that the distracting temptations offered by electronic media, particularly the strong social pull, simply diverts attention away from class learning activities, similar to what has been observed in the short term.