Discouraging digital doodling with play in large lecture spaces

Multitasking might be seen as an ability of today’s technology-savvy students, however research reveals that the distraction of social media, games and other unrelated online activities afforded by mobile phones in the classroom, dramatically affect student performance. In the past, the knee-jerk reaction to this has been to ban the use of such devices during lectures. However, this becomes more challenging as class size increases. In this paper, we discuss an opportunity to utilise this small technological arsenal during a lecture in a playful way that can lead to student engagement while distracting from social networking and email checking. Herein, a preliminary case study of a gamified lecture is presented which occupies the audience with their mobile devices but immerses them in the educational content.