Education & Inspiration
A Little Learning:
Radio Frequency Interference
How should you monitor cell phone use in the classroom?
By C. Renée James and Scott T. Miller
Jay Young for Green Bank Observatory
Cellphones aren’t allowed at Green Bank Observatory because their electronics can interfere with the cosmic radio signals astronomers are looking for.
[Bartek/Pixabay]
"The universe is whispering to us,” proclaim a poster, a magnet, a hooded sweatshirt, and a swarm of other merchandise at the gift shop of the Green Bank Observatory Science Center. The giant radio ears — or, more accurately, eyes — that pick up those cosmic whispers are just a few hundred meters down a narrow road that’s open only to foot, bicycle, and diesel-powered traffic. Spark plugs in gasoline engines, it seems, create radio frequency interference that contaminates observations. Then again, so does just about everything else that involves electronics. A passing satellite or airplane, a garage door opener, a Wi-Fi network, and even a robotic vacuum cleaner can interfere with radio telescope observations.
The humble cellphone is one of the worst offenders. A single cellphone as far away as the Moon would be one of the strongest radio signals in the sky if the telescope was pointed toward it, so you can forget snapping a selfie with the 100-meter Green Bank Radio Telescope with it. But the bigger problem onsite is each phone’s electronic hum is capable of wrecking the day’s observations. So you’ll need to switch them off on observatory grounds. Indeed, thanks to the West Virginia Radio Astronomy Zoning Act, “It shall be illegal to operate or cause to be operated any electrical equipment within a two-mile radius of the reception equipment of any radio astronomy facility if such operation causes interference with reception by said radio astronomy facility.”
When it comes to cellphones, inflexible policies designed to minimize interference are sometimes required.
As you look around at the sea of heads in your classroom, face-down as they stare at the glowing device in their hands, you may be tempted to adopt a similarly rigid approach. But maybe there’s a way to live with the interference.
Cellphone Interference
These days practically every student in your class has a smartphone, which they use for every purpose under the Sun (except as a phone, go figure). It seems as though their lives are tied to this device. They get the daily news from it, stay in contact with family and friends on it, and pass the time exploring the world with it. The problem is, they often choose to do this instead of being present and attentive in class. In 2011, Deborah R. Tindell and Robert W. Bohlander found that 92 percent of students reported texting during class (30 percent of them saying they text every class period), with most of them believing that the instructor is mostly unaware of the frequency with which they are on their phones.
Numerous studies have proven that students are worse at multitasking than they think (Did YOU see the gorilla while they were passing the basketball?) and according to a 2015 study by Jeffrey Kuznekoff and collaborators, do not retain information as well when they are not fully engaged. The issue can be difficult to prove to students, though. In 2018, Arnold Glass and Mengxue Kang determined that while extraneous cellphone use has a negative effect on the long-term retention of course material, it doesn’t necessarily affect daily comprehension of a lecture, so students may think that they are learning the material because they are following the lecture at the moment, but fail to realize that the negative effects don’t show up until further down the line when they try to reason through concepts on an exam. One way or another, research supports the fact that student cellphone use negatively impacts student performance in class.
Unfortunately, students are too attached to their cellphones to put them down. We can lecture them about the impacts of cellphone use during class, but they still feel the urge to check their phones. Some will readily admit that they know it is detrimental to their learning, but they can’t help themselves. According to Bernard McCoy in a 2013 study, more than 80 percent of students admit that being on their cellphones causes them to pay less attention, but they do it anyway.
(And really, who can blame them. We’ve been distracted by texts all morning while writing this article!)
The Green Bank Observatory hosts several radio telescopes, and it sits within a radio-quiet zone.
[NSF/GBO/Jill Malusky]
Students can use cellphones for a good cause during class, and as an educator you can encourage the behavior.
[Photo by Ivan Samkov/Pexels]
Creating a radio quiet zone of your own
Professors and educators have polled colleagues to try to find an answer to the question about what to do about cellphone usage and find a wide range of responses.
How optimistic are you with your students? Do you think it’s best to have a strict cellphone policy with consequences for infractions? Or, perhaps you prefer to not have a cellphone policy at all, figuring that regardless of whether you have one or not, students are going to be on their phones anyway, so let them find out the hard way the consequences of doing so?
There are a number of different approaches you can take:
- The Extreme Approach (or The Strict Parent)
“My house, my rules. While in my class you will provide me with respect and pay attention. That means no cellphones! If I catch you on your phone there will be consequences!”
- The Professional Approach
“Consider college as if it’s your job, because for four years, it is. While you are working, you should be focused on your work and not be distracted by your phone. It’s the professional way to behave.”
- The Researched Approach
“Here’s a bunch of data and videos that prove that students don’t learn as well when they are distracted by cellphones. Trust the data and stay off your phones.”
- The Lenient Approach (Or The Cool Parent)
“Hey, you and I know cellphones are a distraction, but I’m going to leave it up to you to decide what is best to do. I just hope you make the right decision.”
A main consideration is, do cellphone policies even work? In 2020, Shannise Jones and her colleagues predicted that when comparing courses with a strict cellphone policy to those with a lenient policy, the more lenient courses would have a higher rate of cellphone use. But upon observation, students in both sets used their cellphones roughly the same amount. They also reported that while some studies showed that students in more lenient classes performed worse than students in stricter classes, other studies observed no difference in student grades. It is unclear if the type of cellphone policy has any effect on student performance.
[NSF/GBO/Mike Holstine]
It’s a good thing the cows at the Green Bank Observatory don’t use cellphones or other electronics.
[Green Bank Observatory/flickr]
Embracing Technology
Technology has come a long way since we were students in college, or even since many of us started our academic careers. For some of us, we don’t fully realize the level at which technology can be utilized within the classroom. In a 2012 paper, William Baker and his colleagues summarized the issue as “In short, most students are digital natives, most teachers are digital immigrants, and most administrators are neither. Ironically, though, it is the administrators who create most of the policies forbidding electronic devices in the classroom, without ever consulting students or teachers.”
Perhaps the solution isn’t to ban cellphone use in the classroom, but to embrace it. Use its powers for good instead of evil! Provide the students with guidelines regarding when cellphones are allowed, and then offer them plenty of opportunities to do so. In 2020, Pamela Morris and Susan Sarapin discovered “that instructors are not yet integrating mobile phones into pedagogy, but largely only employing them for basic use.”
There are many apps out there that turn cellphones into voting machines, allowing students to answer questions in class as if they were an audience member on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. This is also an excellent way to engage students in class and assess whether they are paying attention.
Beyond voting, cellphones can also be used to look up information, allowing students to discover basic information for themselves, rather than relying on an instructor to tell them everything about everything. It is rare that we remember the mass of Saturn or how big the biggest star ever detected is, but thanks to Google and the internet, we don’t have to, and neither do your students. You can also create activities that rely on students to look up factual information as part of an activity that trains them how to find information for themselves, instead of simply “asking the expert.”
SCOTT T. MILLER is a Professor of physics and astronomy at Sam Houston State University, where he has taught introductory astronomy for non-science majors and engaged in astronomy education research since 2008.
C. RENÉE JAMES is a science writer and professor of physics and astronomy at Sam Houston State University, where she has taught introductory astronomy since 1999. She is the author of two books, “Seven Wonders of the Universe That You Probably Took for Granted” (2010) and “Science Unshackled” (2014).
But there’s even more than students can do with their cellphones. With the current generation tied so strongly to these devices, developers create programs and apps specifically for cellphone use. Chances are that computer program you used to love to demonstrate in class has been retooled as an app for cellphones. And if not, just ask a colleague in the computer science department if they’d be willing to create a class project involving the design of a few specialty apps for your course (which is what we did).
Smartphones are an everyday part of our lives, bringing with them instant access to most anything we’re curious about. It’s up to you whether you see them as a resource to be used to maximum benefit or instead noise creating interference for your students. There is nothing inherently wrong with cellphones. They can be wonderful tools, allowing your students to gather information, interact with simulations, and demonstrate their understanding, all within the palms of their hands. They can also be a distraction, prohibiting them from paying attention and ultimately decreasing their performance in class. Like most technology devices, it’s not the tool itself that is good or bad, but how it is used. It’s up to us to decide whether we wish to allow our students to use it. ✰
(Originally published March 31, 2023)
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