Drawn to distraction: A qualitative study of off-task use of educational technology

Aagaard, Jesper

doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2015.03.010

Cited by 197 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Absent presence, one might say, is just a click away. Second, John's unintentional slipup ('If somebody's talking to me and I'm looking at my phone…'), Isabella's talk of 'trying not to' use her phone when she is with her friends, and Simon's self-conscious shift of perspective mid-sentence ('I do that myself') implies that even opponents of absent presence engage in the behavior because of a habitual element that is not under voluntary control of the user (see also Aagaard 2015). Lastly, if you were to drift away during a conversation with your friends, they would most likely tell you to 'snap out of it', but somehow the social norms around the use of mobile devices are too vague and novel to possess such commanding authority.…”

Section: Absent Presence Versus Daydreaming and Mind Wanderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After six months of observation in various classrooms, I started conducting formal, in-depth interviews with individual students. During my observations, I had noticed that students often used educationally unrelated websites during class (Aagaard 2015). In an attempt to gauge whether (and if so, how) this distractive media strategy intertwined with their broader life trajectories, I wanted to address the use of technologies outside the context of school in settings that young people choose freely.…”

Section: Situating the Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mobile devices, interaction, and distraction: a qualitative exploration of absent presence

Aagaard

2015

AI & Soc

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Abstract:Mobile devices have become an ever-present and indispensible part of our lives. Despite this pronounced ubiquity, few studies have addressed the influence of mobile devices on everyday social interaction. The purpose of this article is to examine such social ramifications. Specifically, this study offers an in-depth qualitative exploration of so-called absent presence, the state where a partner is physically present, yet absorbed by a technologically mediated world of elsewhere. Building on interviews about technology use with Danish students, findings suggest that the microsocial dynamics at stake in such impaired social interaction include delayed responses, mechanical intonation, a motionless body, and a lack of eye contact. Appropriating developmental psychologist Daniel Stern's terminology, it is suggested that this mismatch between the vitality of a person and his or her absently present conversational partner amounts to a kind of unintentional misattunement which disrupts the smooth flow of ordinary interaction and signals indifference to what is being said. On this basis, absent presence is distinguished from related concepts of daydreaming and mind wandering. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Section: Absent Presence Versus Daydreaming and Mind Wanderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Situating the Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile devices, interaction, and distraction: a qualitative exploration of absent presence

Aagaard

2015

AI & Soc

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“…Their findings suggest that faculty face the difficult decision of wanting to ban extra-curricular technology use in the classroom but not wanting to alienate their students, or tarnish their "rapport." Aagaard (2015) notes that students' addiction to their electronic devices undermines their learning in the classroom more than it serves as a learning tool. "Cyberslacking" is the term Taneja, Fiore, and Fischer (2015) use to describe unrestricted student technology use in the classroom.…”

Section: Personal Technology Use In the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

A Model for Teaching Large Classes: Facilitating a “Small Class Feel”

Lynch¹,

Pappas²

2017

IJHE

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This paper presents a model for teaching large classes that facilitates a "small class feel" to counteract the distance, anonymity, and formality that often characterize large lecture-style courses in higher education. One author (E.P.) has been teaching a 300-student general education critical thinking course for ten years, and the other (R.L.) has assisted in the administration and instruction of said course for four years. Detailed here is an instructional model, developed over a period of ten years, for teaching large classes that is more active, conversational, and characterized by stronger relationships between students and instructors than is typically found in large courses offered in higher education. This model relies on the role of teaching assistants and graders, small group work, instructor presence, writing skills support, student mentoring, and large class discussion, among others.

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“…This analysis neatly illustrates the nonneutrality of the popular presentation tool. In addition to the (auto-)ethnographic data collection implied by this example of, I have personally found it helpful to interview other people (i.e., students and teachers) about their technologically mediated experiences (Aagaard 2015).…”

Section: Postphenomenology As a Research Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introducing postphenomenological research: a brief and selective sketch of phenomenological research methods

Aagaard

2016

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education

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In time, phenomenology has become a viable approach to conducting qualitative studies in education. Popular and well-established methods include descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenology. Based on critiques of the essentialism and receptivity of these two methods, however, this article offers a third variation of empirical phenomenology: Postphenomenology. The article introduces postphenomenology, a philosophy of technology that highlights the importance of technological mediation of experience: Technologies transform our perceptions (amplify/reduce) and translate our actions (invite/inhibit). Based on this framework, two approaches to empirical fieldwork are suggested: In-depth exploration of the typical use of a given technology and critical comparison of multiple versions of a technology. It is argued that using postphenomenology as a research method helps researchers explore technological mediation, a vital and oft-neglected aspect of educational practice, but the method simultaneously entails epistemological commitments such as multistability, reflexivity, and posthumanism. The article concludes by discussing future challenges for the postphenomenological method.

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Drawn to distraction: A qualitative study of off-task use of educational technology

Cited by 197 publications

References 20 publications

Mobile devices, interaction, and distraction: a qualitative exploration of absent presence

Mobile devices, interaction, and distraction: a qualitative exploration of absent presence

A Model for Teaching Large Classes: Facilitating a “Small Class Feel”

Introducing postphenomenological research: a brief and selective sketch of phenomenological research methods

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