I just read a story describing a negative classroom outcome attributed to the availability of technology. The outcome did not surprise me. What I want to comment on is the manner in which the study has been reported and my concern that those who do not read and think about a full description may draw the wrong conclusion. The study concerned a performance difference of students who had and did not have access to technology during class. Here is what is important to recognize. These were college students enrolled in a large, lecture class. Having taught such classes for most of my career, I am not surprised by the outcome. Students in such a setting are pretty much free to do what they want and many take the opportunity to see what is happening on Facebook or whatever other social media site they follow.
What concerned me was the first report I read of this study was accompanied by a picture of young students in a classroom. I would propose that the supervision, expectations, class size, and many other differences exist between these two situations. Would I as a large, intro college class lecturer make a comment to a student I knew was checking Facebook rather than listening to me? No way. My expectations were that the student could use the time and he or she wanted as a matter of personal responsibility. In reality, I would likely have given the student credit for coming to class in the first place even if he/she was unwilling to give me their full attention. I doubt many middle school teachers would react in the same way. I also would not expect the middle school teacher to be dealing with several hundred students and be expected to keep their attention for an hour or an hour and a half.
Here is another post citing the MIT study. I hope my comments make some sense and explain why generalizing from this study to other settings is misguided. I sometimes wonder if writers pick up on the general message and with an agenda match one interpretation of the outcome to this agenda. Honestly, even in introductory courses, we try to explain that the key to understanding research is to carefully read the methodology and consider how the circumstances of the study influence the outcome.