Humanity has evolved into a multitasking digital and sometimes, distracting, world. This PBS documentary digital_nation life on the virtual frontier discusses what life is like in the digital world we live in today. As educators, this is the world our students are growing up in and in the information age, we have to adjust our teaching methods in order to engage our students.
Multitasking between listening to lectures, texting, facebooking, and having a conversation and switching between all of these tasks is so common for not just college students, but adults, too. Research in the video shows that, while people seem to think that they are completing all of these tasks to the best of their ability all at the same time, they are actually being distracted and would perform each task better if they were focusing exclusively on each task. The increase in the use of technology seems to have created both benefits in engagement but a decrease in some skills like writing. While 21st century skills seem to be improving, what used to be common skills covered in school are not at the level they once were according to the video.
The tasks that we are asking students to do in class have to evolve or students will not be engaged. As one student said in the video, he hasn’t read Romeo and Juliet but he could get online and “read it” in five minutes because he doesn’t feel like there are enough hours in the day. Our students are “living online” currently, so we must bring the online world into the classroom for our students to feel as though what they are learning is relevant. This New York Times article, Our Cluttered Minds by Jonah Lehrer, discusses the pros and cons of the internet and what it may be doing to our brains. Our attention span seems to have diminished and our brains are constantly swamped with information pulling us in many directions. This is the way our world is now, therefore, students need practice in both splitting their attention and focusing on one project.
While we cannot change the information and distractions that are pulling our students’ brains away from school, we can make changes to teach them how to focus in meaningful ways on important tasks. I am as guilty as anyone of getting distracted by life and splitting my attention between multiple tasks. There are complaints that students today want instant gratification, but I feel like that is how the world has become and my coworkers and I are the same way. I want students to be able to have the focus to read a novel, but I also think that one of the best strategies we can use at school is to continue having student apply the 21st century skills like multitasking, collaboration, and creative problem solving. These are all tasks that students will have to use in real life jobs. I use these skills daily as a teacher and practicing these tasks will help students become more skilled in these necessary life expectations.
