The academic use of the laptop and the smartphone by spanish and latin American university students

Abstract

The present study analyzes the use of computer and mobile phone by university students, identifying their benefits and academic application. It is applied a non-probabilistic sample of 469 subjects in 10 universities, 5 in Spain and 5 in Ibero-American countries. We have employed a descriptive and factorial analysis. We concluded that there is a more significant presence of the laptop in the study and academic tasks, while the mobile phone is more present in communication and entertainment. The laptop has more presence in the instructive, informative, collaborative and illustrative functions, and in learning activities. The mobile phone performs better in terms of entertainment and communication functions. In any case, the benefits and satisfaction in using both devices are clear. This reality postulates teacher towards a new teaching methodology, including the preparation of resources to be used online.