Are people addicted to their smart phones? Image: Flickr/Andres Rodriguez.

Denny Carter of eCampus News, in his article on how frequently students check their smartphones and laptops, extensively quotes ASMH co-founder Julie Germany. Here are the quotes:

The trend of checking devices is going to get worse for a while before it gets better,” said Julie Germany, cofounder of the Association for Social Media and Higher Education, and former director of the George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. “For many people, connecting through text, eMail, chat, and social media has become an important interruption. I suspect we’ll become even more addicted before we see people begin to take longer breaks from their devices.”

Germany said the presence of smartphones with speedy web connections has transformed lectures, and even meetings: “People talk on the phones, write papers for other classes, and connect socially.”

“It’s not all bad, either,” she said. “Some of us Google issues, people, situations or theories during lectures, for example, and that provides additional context and a new level of learning.”

Professors should try to incorporate popular social media sites that students scour every waking hour into their course curriculum, Germany said, and students should remember that lectures and discussion sections still have a purpose in the age of digital devices.

“It’s hard to disconnect,” she said. “In some ways, educators need to adapt by being more interactive. In other ways, students need to learn to when shut down their devices, pay attention, and learn.”