ABSTRACT
Beginning the first main section of this book, this chapter focuses on how the use of technology in educational settings may have detrimental effects. A wide variety of studies, across multiple disciplines, has examined the intersection of technology in the classroom. One particularly fruitful area of research has been the negative effects of technology on learning. This chapter summarizes several research agendas that have looked at mobile phones and computers in the classroom, particularly the negative influence of these devices on students learning. This research demonstrates that using mobile phones while in a classroom setting negatively affect learning, recall, and note-taking. Separate research, examining the use of notebook computers in class, has also demonstrated similar effects. In particular, using notebook computers tends to lead to students using those devices for multitasking behaviors and often those behaviors are for non-course related purposes. This off-task behavior tends to be detrimental to student learning. Lastly, this chapter poses the question of how do we, as educators, use technology in our classrooms to help our students and enhance their learning? This is a difficult question to answer, but this chapter notes that, by itself, integrating technology without careful considering this meaningful integration will likely not be successful. This chapter concludes by discussing Second Life, an online virtual environment, that did not apparently succeed in educational settings, potentially because of this lack of meaningful integration.
