Digital Distractions in the College Classroom

Research consistently shows that student digital distraction is an international phenomenon occurring in college classrooms across countries and cultures. Unfortunately, college instructors have reported feeling conflicted about what their responsibilities are in addressing student digital distraction and how to effectively curb this behavior. This first-of-its-kind publication provides college instructors and educational researchers with a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents, prevalence, and consequences of student digital distraction and offers a menu of practical strategies that can be leveraged to curb student digital distraction in the classroom. Furthermore, this publication stimulates psychological and educational research by connecting digital distraction with relevant theories in the field of educational psychology.

This book empowers college instructors across cultures to protect the integrity of their classroom learning environment from digital distraction. A clear case is made regarding the importance of proactively curbing student digital distraction and practical prevention strategies are presented and discussed. Furthermore, this book can be a useful resource for educational researchers interested in domains such as academic motivation and self-regulation of learning. Prior research methodologies and findings are discussed, and future avenues of research presented. Discussions within this text equips educational researchers with an understanding of the ties digital distraction must existing educational theories, which can be used to ground future qualitative and quantitative investigations into the digital distraction phenomenon.