Question

What were the main findings of this research (i.e., did the analyses support or fail to support the researchers’ hypotheses?). (The answer to this question can be found by reading the “Discussion” section of the article, especially the first few paragraphs).

and this is the Discussion :

Today’s students are quite different than those who populated university classrooms at the turn of the century. Raised in the internet age, constantly “plugged in”, seemingly inextricably attached to cell phones, and facile with all types of electronic media, these students nonetheless are expected to learn much of the same material as did their predecessors of the late 20th century. Today’s students’ classroom behaviors, however reflective of their engagement and facility with current technology, may be putting students’ learning at risk. And today’s classrooms, configured for wireless computing or equipped with computers, may be enabling students to engage in behaviors that compromise learning. Although many stories and anecdotes describe professors who find their students shopping online, playing games, texting friends, and checking Facebook, no prevalence data have indicated how widespread of a phenomenon classroom multitasking is. The purpose of this study was to describe the multitasking behaviors of university students while sitting in their traditional classrooms and while on their computers working on online classes. The finding that the majority of students multitask is not surprising; however, in an institution where the average class size was 22.7 during the semester that the study was done, it is surprising that more than 50% of the students sitting in class were frequently text messaging and more than one fourth were frequently checking Facebook, presumably while their professors looked on. Abaté (2008) claims that the consequence of tolerating multitasking in the classroom is an education that is limited in its adaptability, superficial, and short term memory based. The negative association between multitasking and GPA that was found in this study may not provide evidence for Abaté’s (2008) specific claims, but it does provide some justification for those professors who are banning laptops and cell phones from their classrooms (Adams, 2006; Jan, 2011). Banning phones and laptops in the classroom may meet with resistance because students may not be aware of the frequency of their multitasking, and if they are, they may not see it as problematic. Turkle (2011) comments that today’s youth grew up in a culture of distraction and that technology is so much a part of life, it has become like a phantom limb. She refers to individuals as “tethered” to technology, and contends that for many, the “unplugged” world does not provide satisfaction. Turkle (2008) writes that a phenomenon such as e-mailing during classes is so mundane that it is scarcely noticed, and that once done surreptitiously, it is currently not something people feel they need to hide. The proliferation of online classes and the significantly greater amounts of multitasking that take place among students engaged in online coursework may lead to some concern about the quality of attention and learning going on in online classes. Some of the focus group responses to the question asking participants what else they were doing while they were engaged in coursework were unique to students who took online classes. These included cooking dinner, caring for children, playing with pets, and conversing with family/roommates. These kinds of activities not only divert cognitive focus and attention, they also can physically remove the student from the act of engaging in the class.

Answer 1

the hypothesis of the study that is todays students are different than the earlier centuries has been found to be true as the earlier generations did not have options to multitask much in the textbook learning but in online learning or computer learning it is difficult to track the multiple tasks children do and also their attention span is low as they have access to almost all kind of information as well as texts and social media in the same device in which they are studying which disturbs them and engages them into other activities making the less focused