Smartphones in the Classroom: Beneficial or Distracting?

More than half of college students (56 percent) want to use their smartphones for educational purposes while in class, but about half of professors (46 percent) say it would be a distraction, according to a survey on smartphone use conducted by Cengage Learning. Less than a quarter of surveyed students, or 23 percent, said they thought smartphone use would be distracting. Curiously, 92 percent of faculty members said students bring their smartphones to class, while only 77 percent of students said the same.