Academic Activity of Students and Smartphone: A Study with Reference to College Students of Udupi Area of Karnataka

Nowadays, smart phones have become a part of every person’s life. People around the world have adopted this new and exciting technology as one of the most important required facilities in their everyday life. A variety of smart phones applications, available to be used in a wider range of usage situations. It is no doubt a smart phone is a new gadget that can change people’s lives while focusing on the usage of mobile phone applications and its impact on teaching and learning within a unique population. The purpose of this study is to investigate the smart phones use for academic purposes by students studying in graduate and post graduate classes and its outcome. The study is based on primary as well as secondary data sources. The primary data are collected by conducting field surveys in colleges in Udupi taluk of Karnataka. To collect the data wellstructured questionnaire was circulated among the student of the colleges. Totally more than 150 students are included in the sample size. Analysis is made by using some statical tools. The findings of the study are, students have used smart phones extensively as a means of knowledge sharing tool, teaching, learning etc. But study found, despite the benefits of smart phone use, students have been negatively affected by smart phone like over use of smart phone to time pass, spreading rumors etc. However, the study concluded that use of smart phones to college students is really a blessings rather than curse.


Introduction
Nowadays, smart phones have become a part of every person's life. People around the world have adopted this new and exciting technology as one of the most important required facilities in their everyday life. A variety of smart phones applications, available to be used in a wider range of usage situations. It is no doubt a smart phone is a new gadget which has a capability to change people lives while focusing on the usage of mobile phone applications and its impact on teaching and learning within a unique population The Internet is very useful for a variety of purposes such from convenient electronic commerce to rapid sharing of information, it contacts with other cultures, helps to emotional support and entertainment etc. Smart phones were used by 1.85 billion people in 2014. This number was increased to 2.32 billion in 2017 and expected to increase to 2.87 billion in 2020. During the last one decade the government of India, through the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has introduced various ICT based educational projects for the benefits of students as well as teachers. These projects have immensely changed the teaching, learning and research process of institutions of higher education such as colleges, universities, and research organizations .some of the notable projects of MHRD such as NPTEL, SWAYAM, NPEEE, INDEST, shodhaganga, Shodhogangotri, N-LIST, UGC-INFONET, VIDWAN etc. Have become very popular amongst academicians and students. Since all these project are built on web based platform forms, the use of Internet for academic purposes has also been increased by many folds. Besides providing access to the enormous literature, the Internet allows users to socially connect with other fellows and sharing of educational resources. At this context, the purpose of this study is to examine the smart phones use for academic purpose by students studying in graduate and post graduate classes and its outcome.

OPEN ACCESS
Objectives 1. To study the usage of smart phones by college students. 2. To identify main purpose of using smart phones 3. To know the duration of time spent by college students in smart phones 4. To ascertain the usage of smart phones for various academic purpose

Methodology
The study is based on primary as well as secondary data sources. The primary data are collected by conducting field survey in colleges in Udupi. To collect the data well-structured questionnaire was circulated among the student of the colleges and respondents are selected through random sampling method. Totally more than 150 students are included in the sample size. Thereafter, to analyse statistical methods like averages, percentages and graphs are used. Secondary sources used are published reports, Journals, etc.

Analysis
With the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution educational reform utilizing information and communication technology [ICT] devices have attracted more attention. ICT applications enable the academic community to use various features available for enriching the knowledge in general and research productivity in particular. Smart Phones can be used for sharing emails, question-answering, downloading, and making payments and many other activities. Although a tiny and handy devise, it is one of the most dynamic and sophisticated trends in communication. The following is the analysis part of the same.

Profile of the Respondents
Respondent profile included class which are they studying, gender of the respondent, family income. Below table show the profile of the respondents.

Source: Primary data
The above table (Table no.1) indicates the profile of the respondents. For the analysis the study used the college student of the age group between 18-24 years who are pursuing their PUC, Graduation and Post-Graduation respectively. Among these students 62% are from Post graduation and remaining 14% and 24% are PUC and under graduates respectively. Among these 58% were female student, and 42% were male. Regarding family income,58% respondents are having below 1.5lakh annual income of the family, 24% are between 1.5 to 3.5 lakhs per annum and 18% are above 3.5 lakhs respectively.

Smart Phone Use and Time Spending on it in a Day
Now days mobile phones are necessary and it has become part of life. It is clear from study that 100% of our respondents are using mobile phone. The study examines the amount of time spending in use of Smartphone. Every student spends some time in using smart phone, but there is difference in spending time. As per the study, 57.5% students spent time in smart phone daily is in between 1-3 hrs they agree this, and 9.6% of respondents are spend above 5hrs in a day. And some are less than 1hrs in day that is 19.2%. ( Table 2). The same is exhibited with following chart.

Money Spent for Internet Facility
The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer network that uses the Internet protocol suite to link devices worldwide. It is a "network of network" that consists of private, public, academic, business, and Govt. Network of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing. The origins of the Internet data back to the development of packet switching and research commissioned by the United States Department of Defence in the 1960s to enabled time-sharing of mainframe computers. The primary precursor network, the ARPANET, initially served as a backbone for interconnection of regional academic and military network in the 1970s, the funding of the National Science Foundation Network as a new backbone in the 1980s as well as development of new network technologies, and the merger of many network.

Use of Smartphone for Study and Research Activities
For the study purpose the mobile phones are very helpful and useful now a days, it is working as computer. No doubt, mobile help to do maximum work which is usually done by using computer. It is easy to handle also, so the students who use Smartphone for academic purpose are as follows. The above table shows that the use of Smartphone for studies, as per the samples,it is clear that majority of student respondent are agree that they are using mobile phone for study purpose along with other purpose. Here it is 82.67% agree that they use it for their study and study related wok. Specially most of the Post Graduate students said that this device very much helped them to exchange and search study material as well as their research work.

Use of Social Media Apps in Imparting Education
A few social media apps like whatsapp, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc are very much helping in sharing notes, books and copies of material related to study activity. Regarding this the respondents views are indicated in the below table.

Use of Smartphone for Different Academic Purpose
As per the study, students have been using Smartphone for different types of academic activities. It may be to know ongoing academic activities of the class, to exchange study materials, to know the academic news, to carry research activities, etc.  Findings of the Study 1. All the respondents (students) have been using the Smartphone in their academic activities. 2. Most of the respondents are spending in an average 3houre in a day (i.e., 57% students) 3. 44% of respondents spend in an average 200-350 rupees in a month for their internet connection or facility. 4. 82.67% of students preferred to Smartphone and said it is very useful for their study and academic activity. 5. 84.67% of respondents agreed that there is value for education through Smartphone. 6. Smart phone is used for various purposes in education mainly like for getting information about class activities, for exchange of notes, books and downloads of study materials, for video lecturing, for research activities etc.,

Conclusion
In conclusion findings shows that there are many ways that smartphones affect the academic lives if the students. The smartphone has become a helpful learning device and a widely used academic purposes all around the world. It saves time and cost of the users by providing best computing power for faster communication. Moreover, these devices are being used to address ever increasing information needed of the academic community. There are many applications freely available online. Such Apps can be easily downloaded and stored on any handy device. The exploratory study has emphasized that students could use phones for academic purposes extensively from simple reading, browsing and downloading academic materials. It has wide impact on their interest through class participation, enhancement of learning skills, preparation and submission of assignment on time. Thus, As per the observation, the attitude of the student learning through mobile is positive, and majority of them expresses that smart phone usage for educational purposes should be encouraged by the college and staff. Smart phone is a mobile phone that has the ability of a computer. Majority of students use smart phones for educational purposes. It was observed that students prefer to access information from online resources to library. Therefore, this might present an opportunity for educators to design suitable teaching interventions and develop diverse learning approaches.