Get Smart: Smartphones to Complement Classroom Learning

by Jessica Pyhtila, Pharm.D., PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Resident, VA Maryland Health Care System

"The advent of the smartphone ushers in a myriad of possibilities for its use in education to complement classroom learning," I narrate into the Siri app of my beloved iPhone 5. It’s the opening sentence to this blog essay regarding smartphone use in education for a graduate school class I’m taking.  It’s by no means the first time I’ve used my smartphone as a tool to facilitate my academic work.  It’s not even the first time I’ve used it in this class, a decentralized internet-based class that meets online via Blackboard Collaborate. I’d like to take decentralization one step further by using my iPhone to participate in this class (or any class) from any location of my choice.

I am far from the only person who sees the potential for smartphone use in education, which has become a hot topic among educators. Long lists of educational activities have been published over the past year, encouraging teachers and learners to use smartphones to complement classroom instruction.^1,2 Ideas on these lists include everything from “remembering notes” (e.g. allowing students to photograph the chalkboard/whiteboard) to “blogging” to attendance-taking using location-based apps.^1,2

Smartphones are also being used in health profession education, both inside and outside the classroom. One study found 55% of medical students and 75% of medical school faculty reported that smartphone use had a positive impact on medical education, and 41% reported they used smartphones every day for clinical self-education.³ Further, 75% of medical students reported using smartphones for medical calculators, and 70% of reported using smartphones to access online textbooks.³ Another study of undergraduate health professional students found that smartphone use for educational purposes was focused on accessing medical reference material, and that smartphones were used for this purpose inside the classroom, outside the classroom, and between patient visits.⁴ Yet another study showed that more than 50% of medical students use smartphones to assist with drug information, clinical guidelines, point-of-care information, calculations, and differential diagnoses.⁵

Smartphone prevalence is increasing as well. In the USA alone, 71% of the US population owns a smartphone, according to Nielsen—a percentage that increases to 85% for people age 18-24 and 86% for people age 25-34.⁶ Additionally, there is a negligible gender divide, with 70% of men owning smartphones vs. 72% of women, as of 2014.⁶ Use is believed to be prevalent even among young children, with one estimate that 20% of children age 5-7 use a smartphone, generally belonging to their parents.⁷ That number increases to 70% of children age 13-17.⁷ Furthermore, the top-selling iPhone education applications are generally apps which have been designed for children.⁷ As of this blog post, 9 of the top 20 selling paid education apps on iTunes were aimed at children under the age of 11. Children and teens can be heavy users of smartphones and are highly reliant on phone-based communication and networking.  A 2012 Pew study showed that the average teen sends 60 text messages a day.⁸

Corporations are taking note. Textbook companies such as Pearson are leaping on the trend, offering not only digital versions of graduate-level medical textbooks and textbook auxiliary material, but also flashcards and educational games aimed at young children. McGraw-Hill is also offering flashcard applications aimed at young children to enhance their academic skills. Smaller companies have invested in this trend too, with a wide array of products aimed at both teachers and learners of all levels. Products include everything from free polling apps for teachers to simulate multiple-choice questions on tests, to social-networking style apps for student collaboration that leverage the theory of social learning, which postulates that learning takes place within a social context and construct.

With the use of any new technology—particularly one with such a wide variety of applications available—comes the need to appropriately evaluate its value using it for educational purposes. Carly Shuler, a Cooney Fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, advocates a “3 Cs” approach to evaluating the appropriate use of smartphones to complement education.⁹ (This approach was initially developed by Lisa Guernsey to evaluate children’s media).⁹

• Content – what is the design of the application? Is it appropriate to the age group and education level of the learner? Is the data contained therein trustworthy?
• Context – how is the learner applying what they are learning from the app? Are they learning a skill which they can then translate into a different activity? Is there a discussion period after the app use has been completed?
• Child (or, more broadly, learner) – what types of apps work best for this particular learner? Is there a type of app that seems more efficacious and engaging? Is the learner able to engage with others when not using the app?

Taking this approach into consideration alongside the real-world studies that have incorporated smartphones in teaching and learning, we should pose a few questions teachers should ask as they evaluate whether smartphone use can complement their classroom instruction. First, educators should evaluate the educational needs that might be served by smartphone use—such as remote access. Second, they should evaluate if the need is present in the classroom itself, or outside the classroom. Third, they should evaluate what types of resources and applications might best complement these needs. Lastly, they should consider evaluating smartphone use in the classroom using the “3 Cs” approach.

References

1. 40 Simple Ways To Use A Smartphone In The Classroom [Internet]. Te@chthought. 2012 Oct 10 [cited 2014 Oct 5].
2. Heick T. 50 Reasons It’s Time For Smartphones In Every Classroom [Internet]. Te@chthought. 2014 Jan 27 [cited 2014 Oct 5].
3. Wallace S, Clark M, White J. ‘It’s on my iPhone’: attitudes to the use of mobile computing devices in medical education, a mixed-methods study [Internet]. BMJ Open 2012 [cited 2014 Oct 10];2: e001099.
4. Davies BS, Rafique J, Vincent TR, et al. Mobile Medical Education (MoMEd) - how mobile information resources contribute to learning for undergraduate clinical students - a mixed methods study [Internet]. BMC Med Educ. 2012; 12: 1
5. Boruff JT, Storie D. Mobile devices in medicine: a survey of how medical students, residents, and faculty use smartphones and other mobile devices to find information [Internet]. J Med Libr Assoc. 2014; 102: 22-30.
6. Ring the Bells: More Smartphones in Students’ Hands Ahead of Back-to-School Season [Internet]. Nielsen. 2013 Oct 29 [cited 2014 Oct 5].
7. Mobile Millennials: Over 85% of Generation Y Owns Smartphones [Internet]. Nielsen. 2014 Sep 05 [cited 2014 Oct 5].
8. Lenhart A. Teens, Smartphones & Texting [Internet]. Pew Research Center. 2012 Mar 19 [cited 2014 Oct 5].
9. Hoffman T. Can Smartphones Make Kids Smarter? [Internet]. Education.com. 2013 Aug 27 [cited 2014 Oct 5].

Handwriting Notes in an Era of Technology

by Miranda Law, Pharm.D., PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Resident, Howard County General Hospital

Imagine a university student walking into classroom, promptly sitting in a seat, pulling out his or her laptop to prepare for class, and loading up the lecture slides.  The student also opens a web browser to load Google chat, Facebook, and e-mail.  If you were a student in the past few years, this is likely a familiar scene.

The method for taking notes during lectures has changed over the past decade. The use of laptops in classroom settings has been steadily on the rise and is now estimated to be 65% of students or more.¹ Increasing laptop use has led to apprehension not only about whether students are really paying attention during lectures but also about the quality of learning that is produced from electronic note taking. One survey found that 81% of students admitted to checking their e-mail during class and high percentages reported using instant messaging (48%), surfing the net (43%), playing games (25%), and doing “other” activities (35%) on their mobile devices.¹ The evidence strongly suggests that laptops, if not managed well, are a distraction for students in class.² But distractions aside, let’s assume that in the well managed classroom where every student is on task, not distracted, and diligently taking notes, do students who take “laptop notes” do as well as those students who take “longhand notes”?

An evaluation of this question requires a brief discussion on how each of these methods relates to learning theory. According to cognitive learning theory, one would hypothesize that longhand note taking would require learners to encode information while laptop note taking would merely require the learner to appropriate place information into external storage.³ According to the encoding hypothesis, longhand note taking requires a student to transform information beyond verbatim text and reorganize the material into a context that is most meaningful to the learner.³ Through these processes, students who hand write notes may perform better on examinations, particularly if they are required to do so without prior study.³  Similar to rote memorization, external storage is the process of taking notes in their verbatim format, without deeper processing, and storing them for recall at a later time.³ Therefore, laptop note takers who do not review their notes prior to an examination would likely perform less well due to a lack of deeper processing of the information.³

These suppositions sound legitimate, but a hypothesis is merely a question waiting to be answered.  Does hand writing notes really result in improve performance in real life?  Research shows that laptops enable students to record greater amounts of information over shorter periods of time.⁴  Therefore, any advantage from hand writing notes brought about by “encoding” might be lost due to the greater quantity of information that can be recorded using laptops.

A recent study examines this very question.⁴ Does laptop note taking produce equivalent learning results when compared to longhand note taking? Students in the study watched four instructional videos in one sitting and were later tested on this material. Each group was handed either pencil and paper or provided a laptop to take notes. Both groups were instructed to take notes as they normally would in the classroom and informed that a test on the material would follow in one week.  Some students in each group were allowed 10 minutes to study their notes prior to the exam, and some took the test without having an opportunity to study their notes. The test consisted of both factual and conceptual questions. Results indicated that students who took long hand notes consistently performed better on factual and conceptual questions, regardless of whether time was given for studying (p=0.002).⁴  This study documents a very clear advantage for long hand note taking over laptop note taking.

So what does this all mean? Should the schools set regulations against laptop use? Do teachers need to ban laptops from the classroom? Is banning laptop use in an era when over 90% of the students¹ owns one really feasible?

More and more research now indicates the potential harms of laptop use (and other mobile devices) on the learning process.  Not only do they create the opportunity for distractions but they may harm the very processes necessary for learning. But completely banning laptops and mobile devices is probably not feasible.  Some teachers have established “laptop zones” where users either sit in the front row to ensure their attention or, alternatively, sit in the back row to keep other students from becoming distracted.⁵ These solutions, however, do not resolve the inherent harms that laptop note taking may cause to the learning process.

The evidence shows that handwriting notes enhances the processing and learning of information.  My recommendation is for teachers to create learning environments where hand written notes are not only encouraged, but perhaps mandated.  The focus should be on improving the learning process, rather than prohibiting technology. Students can have their laptops when needed, but hand written notes should be the primary method of recording information during classroom instruction. Pushing students to process and organize the information enhances understanding and learning.  That’s something all teachers should strive to achieve for their students!

References

1. Fried CB. In-class laptop use and its effects on student learning. Computers & Education 2008;50:906-914.
2. Kay RH, Lauricella S. Exploring the benefits and challenges of using laptopcomputers in higher education classrooms: A formative analysis. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology. 2011;37:1-18.
3. Rickards JP, Friedman F. The Encoding versus the External Storage Hypothesis in NoteTaking. Contemporary Educational Psychology. 1978;3:136-143.
4. Mueller PA, Oppenheimer DM. The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages ofLonghand Over Laptop Note Taking. Psychol Sci. 2014;25:1159-1168.
5. Yamamota, K. Banning Laptops in theClassroom: Is it Worth the Hassles?Journal of Legal Education. 2007;75:1-46.