Teaching Learning Problem
The school has three computer classroom labs where computer applications classes are taught. The teachers using these labs complained that students were not staying on task during the class due to the fact they were engaging in numerous activities on the computer outside the scope of the lesson plan. The students would surf the web, spend time on Facebook and engage in chat sessions using instant messaging. There were some filters that had been installed on the computers, but students had found ways to get past these through the use of other web browsers.
Keeping students paying attention in class is certaintly not a new challenge. In the past, students might have engaged in passing notes, sleeping in class, and placing a magazine behind a textbook. These distractions are in many ways mild compared to those that can accompany the use of technologies in schools today. Although the Internet might be a wonderful tool in the classroom, it can be an obstacle in the learning process. (Adams, 2006) Students can engage in all sorts of activity that are disruptive to the learning process. Because of the easy availability of these distractions, students will have a hard time avoiding the tempatation of such activities as web surfing, instant messaging and cheating on tests using the Internet. (Nworie & Haughton, 2008)
In a study conducted in 2006 for a college first year course in psychology, students were studied over the course of a semster on the use of computer laptops in the classroom. (Fried, 2008) In this research, students answered open ended questions about what they found distracting when using the laptops in class. The study also had a quantitative measure of test performance during the semester.
The results of this research showed a majority of the students using the computers in class spent a considerable amount of time multi-tasking (chatting, checking e-mail and surfing the web.) The result of time spent multi-tasking on activities was negatively related to several measures of student learning including self- reported measures of student understanding of course material and overall course performance.