With the start of the a new semester approaching fast, here is an interesting study on the effect of laptop in university classroom both on the person of interest and the surrounding peers. Based on my teenagers behavior at home, it seems obvious that multitasking  in the form of (homework, Facebook, music, Skype) or (TV, Facebook, texting) never really worked.

The manuscript is by Sana et al in Computers & Education entitled “Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers” is demonstrating the (significant) effect in the classroom.

Abstract: “Laptops are commonplace in university classrooms. In light of cognitive psychology theory on costs associated with multitasking, we examined the effects of in-class laptop use on student learning in a simulated classroom. We found that participants who multitasked on a laptop during a lecture scored lower on a test compared to those who did not multitask, and participants who were in direct view of a multitasking peer scored lower on a test compared to those who were not. The results demonstrate that multitasking on a laptop poses a significant distraction to both users and fellow students and can be detrimental to comprehension of lecture content.“

Thanks to those who have pointed out this study on LinkedIn.