Motivation and Active Learning to Improve Student Performance: An Extended Abstract

Learning, student motivation, and mobile technology are three components of most contemporary college classrooms; yet the academy has divided opinions as to what mix of the latter two maximizes the former. Many of these opinions are based only on observations in the classroom as few empirical studies exist. Arguments in favor of including mobile technology in a learning environment include providing greater access to information for students (Ferris 2015), increased student engagement (Zhu et al. 2012), and providing students the freedom and responsibility of choice (Von Schlicten 2015). Still, the evidence mounts that unfettered access to mobile technology acts as a gateway out of the learning experience (Rosen et al. 2013) and limits processing and performance of students (Mueller and Oppenheimer 2014). In fact, students typically overestimate their ability to split their attention between social uses of technology and education uses (Rosen et al. 2012) which suggests that students do not have the necessary information and experience to make informed decisions about the use of mobile technology in the classroom. This manuscript investigates those questions of student choice and student learning in a real-world setting and offers recommendations for designing a classroom policy regarding the use of mobile technology.