Does frequent cell phone use affect school grades?

1. Dave Tonna, Jake Bellamy, Alex Rodgers Does frequent cell phone use affect school grades?

2. Introduction • Our research question was “does frequent cell phone use affect school grades?” • Our main questions were about the amount people use cell phones, what people’s grades are and whether they find cell phones distracting • We had 165 respondents • We had 164 valid survey responses

3. Are cell phones distracting? • 87 people agree or strongly agree that cell phones distract them • 108 people, or 66%, say cell phones distract them at work or in class

4. Therefore, do people think cell phones affect their grades negatively? • Surprisingly, no • 71%, or 117 respondents, feel grades are not impacted Only 29%, or 47 respondents, feel grades are impacted by cell phones

5. Cellphone uses and duration A majority uses phones for multiple utilities A majority use there phone over 5 hours

6. Duration/Use and Distraction • Due to the amount of use and the utility of the phone it can be expected that a majority will say the phone is ‘not distracting’ • Social media and texting are the major reasons for cellphone use, with ease of access it can be distracting in a class setting

7. Realities of Cellphone Use • With a majority over 5 hours of use a week this research question merits more qualitative study. • How exactly is the phone used when engaged in another activity? • When is it particularly distracting? • The usage and utility of the cell phone enforces the potential for distracting and learning

8. Average vs. Importance • Examining whether the importance connects with the marks you receive.

9. The actualization… • The previous slide clearly shows that most individuals want to receive high marks. 128 said that marks were either important or very important. • Yet only 6 people had a mark in the 91% range. The majority were in the 71-80(75 people) range which on average is a 2.7 GPA

10. Limitations • The limitations we face include: • False information • Repeats on the survey

11. Conclusion • Something interesting to note: People think cell phones are distracting, but they don’t affect grades • We would like to see if marks would increase if cell phones were taken out of the classroom atmosphere.