Do Electronic Devices in the Classroom Help?

Or are portables a distraction?

And does this impact only the student with the device?

Read the results from a Rutgers Study:

Students perform less well in end-of-term exams if they are allowed access to an electronic device, such as a phone or tablet, for non-academic purposes in lectures, a new study in Educational Psychology finds. 

Students who don't use such devices themselves but attend lectures where their use is permitted also do worse, suggesting that phone/tablet use damages the group learning environment.

Researchers from Rutgers University in the US performed an in-class experiment to test whether dividing attention between electronic devices and the lecturer during the class affected students' performance in within-lecture tests and an end-of-term exam.