Mobile Phones in University Classrooms: Facilitators or Distractions to Learning?

Carrera, Tamara Aller (2023). Los teléfonos móviles en las aulas universitarias: ¿Facilitadores o distractores del aprendizaje?Video Journal of Social and Human Research, 3(1). 35-44. http/doi.org/10.18817/vjshr.v3i1.54

Mobile phones are essential for young people, but their use in the academic environment raises concerns. UNESCO warns that they can negatively affect academic performance by limiting attention. This study shows that while facilitating access to educational materials, they distract students. It concludes that regulatory measures should be established to mitigate these risks.

Mobile phones have managed to establish themselves as an essential component in the lives of young people, becoming a multifaceted tool used in various contexts such as communication, entertainment, and education. However, the integration of these technological devices into the academic environment has raised questions about their potential consequences. UNESCO has pointed out that the inappropriate use of mobile phones can have a negative impact on academic performance by limiting students' ability to focus. This research study, conducted at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal), aims to analyse the opinions of university students regarding the use of phones in the classroom. The results show that, while these devices can facilitate access to educational materials, they can also be a distraction that affects student engagement during class. Therefore, given these results, it is concluded that there is a need to establish regulatory measures that mitigate the potential risks arising from inappropriate use.

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Tamara Aller Carrera is a professor at the Bragança Polytechnic University. She earned her PhD at the University of Porto, specializing in the didactics of foreign languages. She is responsible for producing the education course "Digital Competence for Teachers: Innovation in Foreign Language Teaching" at FLUP, for which she received recognition within the scope of the 2018 Educational Innovation Award. She also played a pivotal role in the Mu.SA: Museum Sector Alliance project, funded by the European Erasmus+/Sector Skills Alliances program. Her research career has focused mainly on pedagogical innovation through creating digital teaching materials, applying ICT tools in teaching practice, and the development of teachers' digital competence.