Multitasking is inefficient, inaccurate and rewires the brain towards a reduced ability to focus.
In my classes, multitasking while listening filters out the nuances I am trying to teach by encouraging you to make connections on your own among comments I've made and the style in which I have made them. Students who are multitasking tend to be waiting for data or main points to be announced. This is not my lecture style. Therfore, multitasking creates a distance between you and what you need to know to master the material present in my classes.
Laptops, tablets, smartphones and similar devices are not permitted in my classes unless I state otherwise. Laptops and tablets are permitted in discussion sections SOLELY for the purpose of having at hand the reading assignment of the day, when it is in digital form. (You do NOT need to print out digital files for my classes!)
I find that in most cases I think negatively of students who multitask in my classes for these reasons:
Multitasking is incompatible with high-level academic discourse that requires keen listening / observation skills and active critical evaluation of the dialogue as it develops (or the film as it is screened, whatever). Some of my teaching sessions are indeed just lecture mode but most are not. I reduce the grade of students when class participation is a grading component. Even when it is not, I do think that here and there this negative opinion might slip into a student's grade anyway, even if just subconsciously.
I rarely toss questions to someone who is multitasking since it slows down the pace of the class as s/he reorients to get back into the flow of the discussion. This means that I don't have any positive evidence that such students are understanding the material, which can work against them when giving grades.
My experience has been that multitaskers are often the students who email me later about something already said in class, or fail to follow instructions, or ask fellow students who don't understand the instructions. I will help these students but I prefer to spend my limited time on those who are attentive in class.
In many of my classes, I am trying to engender discussion among students. Those who are paying only half attention to the events in the room do not encourage this atmosphere.
I find that in some cases I have problems "connecting" with the room when many students are staring into monitors. Sometimes for this reason I switch back from an "laptops are OK for this class" policy to the default "no laptops" policy.
Please talk with me if you have any concerns.
Balancing act ... http://www.kongregate.com/games/IcyLime/multitask
Stress out ... http://www.davecrenshaw.com/free-multitasking-exercise.php?vistage
Crash a car ... http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html
Find your inner multitasker ... http://www.quizmoz.com/quizzes/Personality-Tests/a/Are-you-fit-for-Multi-tasking.asp
Science Friday (NPR Radio) "The Myth of Multitasking" (May 10, 2013):
Clifford Nass
Author, "The Man Who Lied to His Laptop" (Penguin Current, 2010)
Professor, Communication
Stanford Universityhttp://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/05/10/2013/the-myth-of-multitasking.html
Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences: Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers
Abstract: Chronic media multitasking is quickly becoming ubiquitous, although processing multiple incoming streams of information is considered a challenge for human cognition. A series of experiments addressed whether there are systematic differences in information processing styles between chronically heavy and light media multitaskers. A trait media multitasking index was developed to identify groups of heavy and light media multitaskers. These two groups were then compared along established cognitive control dimensions. Results showed that heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and from irrelevant representations in memory. This led to the surprising result that heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to reduced ability to filter out interference from the irrelevant task set. These results demonstrate that media multitasking, a rapidly growing societal trend, is associated with a distinct approach to fundamental information processing.
elearnspace: Why Studies About Multitasking Are Missing The Point
Wired (reporting on 2009 Stanford study): Multitasking Muddles Brains, Even When the Computer Is Off
ars technica (2007): Study says: leave the multitasking to your computer
American Psychological Association Online (2001): IS MULTITASKING MORE EFFICIENT? SHIFTING MENTAL GEARS COSTS TIME, ESPECIALLY WHEN SHIFTING TO LESS FAMILIAR TASKS