This is new research by Joke Coens on mobile learning or what she calls ‘educational multitasking’. You guessed it right, this last description isn’t really my favorite, but the research has more to it.

From the press release:

“Students are no longer tied to one place or time when learning,” says Joke Coens. “The use of mobile devices and web lectures via podcasts is increasing by the day, and this also has practical and economic consequences now that lecture halls are filling up at an increasing rate. But how well can today’s homo zapiensreally carry out ‘educational multitasking’? Or do students perform better when sitting quietly at their desks?”

Coens addressed these questions in her doctoral dissertation, carried out at KU Leuven’s Kulak campus: “I asked students to perform physical activities while listening to a learning task on an mp3 player. In a first exploratory test, students were asked to tighten a nut to a bolt. After that, I tested combinations with everyday activities: walking, jogging, driving, and cycling on a stationary bike.”

In these initial tests, mobile learning appeared to be unproblematic. The students who learned while multitasking performed about as well as students who learned without distraction. “That surprised me somewhat,” says Coen. “People are generally not as good at multitasking as we often assume. Successfully combining one cognitive task with another – reading while watching television for example – is simply impossible for many of us. A recent study found that studying with Facebook open greatly reduces learning performance.”

But combining learning with simple motor tasks appears to be less taxing for the homo zapiens. “When combined with performing tasks like tightening nuts to bolts, walking or jogging, learning performance didn’t suffer. But a subsequent test on multitasking while driving returned contrasting results.”

In that test, students were asked to listen to a Spanish language lesson while driving in a simulator. The learning Spanish part went smoothly, but – no small detail – most students crashed the car.

“There was of course no ‘real’ crash risk: in reality students would rather neglect the learning than crash their car. But the conclusion was clear: educational multitasking has its limits. In contrast to driving, walking and jogging are simple automated activities that require little conscious thinking. Similar studies on multitasking while driving have shown that texting or talking on the phone while driving is dangerously distracting. In Belgium, hands-free calling while driving is permitted, but in reality, it’s actually not that much better than calling with a handset. Even if you are merely expecting a call, your thoughts take your ‘mind’s eye’ off the road.”

“I also tested this obvious explanation – the degree of automation – separately. In a final experiment, I had two groups of students view a web lecture while riding a stationary bike. One group was told to ride the bike with no further instructions, the other was told to keep their heartbeat between a certain range. As it happens, the latter group missed entire sections of the lesson.”

So, this research is no proof of people being able to multitask, but does give an insight in learning on the go. Don’t do it while driving a car (see also here), but on a stationary bike no problem. So let’s learn in the fitness!