A new study conducted by Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, outlines the prevalence of student text messaging behavior during class.
Psychology professor Deborah Tindell said 92 percent of students surveyed admitted to occasionally texting during class, and 30 percent said they text in class every day.
She noted that 50 percent of students find it easy to text in class without the professor noticing. A majority of these students also thought they could send text messages unnoticed in a class as small as 12 students.
“In general, students are good at texting without being detected by their instructors. The survey showed that about one fourth of students found sitting near a classmate who is texting to be most distracting,” Tindell said.
According to a statement from the university, Tindell began conducting the survey after she noticed an abundance of students texting in her own lectures.
The study consisted of a 32 question survey that was completed by 269 anonymous students on the Wilkes campus. The survey included students from all class levels and more than 21 different majors, the statement said.
The Wilkes University survey also showed 10 percent of students have sent or received a text message during an exam and 3 percent of students admitted to transferring exam information through a text during an exam.
Director of UW-Madison’s Center for Communication Research Joanne Cantor said students who actively text message while in class are not effectively processing lecture information.
“Research shows that your brain can’t divide its attention, so while you’re texting or even just reading a text you are not able to process the information presented,” Cantor said.
Cantor added the bits and pieces students may pick up on is processed at a much lower level of the brain than if the student were paying full attention.
A study conducted by the University of Wisconsin in the Spring of 2009 showed similar texting trends among students on this campus, said Brian Rust, the Communications Director for UW’s Division of Information Technology.
He said 72 percent of students surveyed admitted to using their cell phone to text message on a regular basis.
“I do text in class, but fairly infrequently. I personally think it’s rude to text in class because it’s wasting both your time and the professor’s when you’re not paying attention. However, sending a quick text to a friend may keep me awake in a boring lecture,” UW freshman Kristen Bond said.
UW freshman Mitch Vanden Brook agreed that while seeing other students’ text in class is distracting, it doesn’t stop him from sending text messages during lectures.
“It’s easy for me to send a quick text without getting distracted and missing a lot of lecture information,” Vanden Brook said.
While few complaints have been filed from UW professors regarding text messaging in class, some professors have expressed interest in removing Internet routers from classrooms to ensure students are using their computers for note-taking only, Rust said.
Tindell added that Internet usage in class is also a distraction for students, but texting seems to be more prevalent in the classroom.
