What Types of Experiences Do Students and Teachers Have with Digital Distraction in School?

One of the initial strengths of 1:1 learning was its ability to foster greater collaboration. For example, students and teachers were able to electronically cooperate through certain apps like Google Docs when working on their writing. But remote learning during Covid was a game-changer, and the lack of quality collaboration during learning time was a major problem stakeholders experienced. In addition to this lack of quality collaboration, time-management for self-paced learning and students and parents’ over-reliance on multitasking compounded digital distraction, especially during asynchronous learning. Not to mention, the definitive lack of student supervision during remote learning, coupled with the aforementioned examples, all created and sustained extended periods of unfocused learning. Synchronous in-person learning was not without its own problems, though. Students and teachers suffered bouts of digital distraction even when learning physically together in person. Unsurprisingly, these distractions stemmed from social media, gaming, and communication with friends (e.g., texting). Interestingly, one of the greatest instigators of digital distraction during in-person learning arose from communication with family, which might not be too surprising for adult teachers, many of whom are parents. But the amount of incoming communication in the form of texts from parents to students during class time is a definitive concern, especially if focused attention during learning is ever to occur.