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Smartphone’s Effects on students’ performance

Yixuan Huang (Jeremy)

Quick Start A

Muneer Ul-Huda

August 11, 2017

As a Chinese proverb says, “ Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.” With the development of technology, there are various products that are influencing people’s life. Smartphone is one of emerging products. Its appearance demonstrates that conversation is not unique purpose of using phone. It has a lot of functions and applications to help people’s work and enrich people’s life. Smartphone is not only popular among workers but also students. Smith asserts that 99% university students who have smartphone use their phones at least once an hour before class starts (2015). Using smartphone can have positive and negative effects on students’ performance which depends on how students utilize the smartphone; therefore, reducing grade of study and feeling tired in class are a couple of effects. However, there is a completely opposite effect that is improving learning efficiency.

Improving learning efficiency is the particular effect of smartphone. First, as a high-technology product, smartphone can analyze and provide essential information for students, which rely on its own functions and Internet support. For example, if students forget a math formula, it is unnecessary for them to find it on book. Smartphone can seek it out fast. D.G.Kim and Kim claim that smartphone has obvious benefits on education, “such as its self-directed nature, adaptivity, ease of use, and technology-embeddedness” (2013). Students who combine smartphone’s functions with study can learn effectively and quickly. Second, there are numerous students who are introvert. Those students don’t feel comfortable when they answer or ask question in class. Sometimes, they are afraid to communicate with teachers. This situation causes a severe problem on study. Harriman (2017) argues that introvert students use smartphone to ask question, participation in class will be increased. Smartphone has some applications that are used to communicate with others, such as Facebook, SMS. Students can use these applications to interact with teachers and receive more information from them. For different students, diverse ways of education are essential. Third, it is important to immerse in class and interact with teachers for students in order to improve learning efficiency. Some students are not willing to attend class and sleep in class due to that traditional education is not interesting. The research which was presented by Kim and Cho in 2016 indicates that Compared smartphone-delivered education with traditional lecture-centered education, and as a result, students who use smartphone to interact with teacher have higher grade than those who receive lecture-centered education. Students are attracted by class and immerse in class; thus, they can improve efficiency and receive the higher grade. By comparison, smartphone has definite assistance in study. The functions of smartphone are used to study, it has benefits on students’ learning efficiency and students are willing to learn seriously.

On the other hand, reducing student’s grade of study is one of the smartphone’s effects. Smartphone’s applications can help people spend the boring time, but it is easy to cause phone addiction on students. First of all, smartphone’s applications have enormous attraction for students. Junco and Cotton indicate that students use Facebook when they are attending class, which has negative effect on their GPA (2012). Students can not immerse in class due to smartphone addiction. It distracts them from class. The GPA or grade of students must be affected. Next, many students have smartphone, and they always use it all day. Thus, it is obvious that smartphone has effect on study. But it has also a fleeting time effect on students. A study indicates that after using smartphone, students have lower grade than those who don’t use smartphone before test (Alosaimi et al., 2016). Whether students use phone before test, which has significant impact on students’ grade. The applications of smartphone distract students from study and grade is influenced.

Smartphone can cause that students feel tired in class. Due to smartphone has distinctive features and various functions, students want to access to it involuntarily. Van Den Bulck claims that the odds of tiredness increase 1.8% when students use phones less once a month. Students who use phones less than once a week promote 2.2 times to be tired (2007). A part of students utilizes it unlimitedly, even if they are not commended by their parents. It consumes lots of energy and affects students’ repose. Next, Student are not allowed to use phones in school because fatigue is a common phenomenon after using phone. The research, which was published by Khan, indicates that 16.08% participators were disturbed by headache and 24.48% subjects have fatigue after they utilize smartphones (2008). Students always feel tired after they exhaust energy during the period of using phone. Then they can not focus on class.

Smartphone has not only negative effects on students’ performance but also positive effects. Three smartphone’s effects are introduced in this essay, namely, improving learning efficiency, reducing student’s grade and making students feel tired in class. Smartphones can assist students in their study based on various functions. For those who are introvert, phone is a platform to help them interact in class. To some extent, students who are educated through phones have a higher mark. Nevertheless, some students open applications for entertainment in class. In most cases, students’ grade is declined after using smartphones. Furthermore, students expend their energy in using smartphones, and it can increase odds of tiredness. If students utilize smartphone reasonably, they can receive unexpectable results. However, students’ performance will be subjected to blow if students utilize smartphone in error.

Reference

Alosaimi, F. D., Alyahya, H., Alshahwan, H., Mahyijari, N. A., & Shaik, S. A. (2016, June). Smartphone addiction among university students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4931650/

Harriman, D. (2017, February 15). Advantages of Using Cell Phones in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.schoolmoney.org/advantages-using-cell-phones-classroom/

Junco, R., & Cotten, S. R. (2012). No A 4 U: The relationship between multitasking and academic performance. Computers & Education, 59(2), 505-514. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.12.023

Khan, M. M. (2008). Adverse effects of excessive mobile phone use. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 21(4), 289-293. doi:10.2478/v10001-008-0028-6

Kim, D. G., & Kim, C. W. (2013). Analysis of the educational utilization of smartphones on elementary children. Journal of the Korean Association of Information Education, 17, 367–373. doi:10.14352/jkaie.2013.17.3.367

Kim, S. J., & Cho, H. (2016). The Effect of Smartphone-Delivered Emergency Preparedness Education on Coping Knowledge Among Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Elementary Schoolchildren in South Korea. The Journal of School Nursing, doi:10.1177/1059840516680267

Smith, A. (2015). US smartphone use in 2015. Pew research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2015/03/PI_Smartphones_0401151.pdf

Van Den Bulck, J. (2007). Adolescent use of mobile phones for calling and for sending text messages after lights out: Results from a prospective cohort study with a one-year follow-up. Sleep, 30(9), 1220-1223. doi:10.1093/sleep/30.9.1220