by
Louisa L.
A
while back I was whinging that students were distracted from work by their new
laptops. Two younger, tech savvy teachers told me there was ample research to
show that kids effectively multi-tasked.
Technology
clearly provides us with huge opportunities to teach and learn, and relying on
research seemed better than relying on my limited observations. Assuming their
evidence to be sound, I didn't follow it up.
Turns
out my teaching mates were wrong; well-publicised philosophical writings in
favour of multi-tasking are disproved by research.
The
Washington Post recently republished,
'Why a leading professor of new media just banned technology use from class'
from medium.com by Professor Clay Shirky of New York
University, summing up that research. Key conclusions, though not the
methodology, are presented below.
Negative
long-term effects
“We’ve known for some time that multi-tasking is bad for the
quality of cognitive work, and is especially punishing of the kind of cognitive
work we ask of college students,” writes Professor Shirky.
“Even when multi-tasking doesn’t significantly degrade immediate
performance, it can have negative long-term effects on 'declarative memory',
the kind of focused recall that lets people characterise and use what they learned
from earlier studying. “
“On top of this, multi-tasking doesn’t even exercise
task-switching as a skill.” He cites Professor Cliff Nass's Stanford University
research which reports that heavy multi-taskers are worse at choosing which task to focus on. Nass calls them “suckers
for irrelevancy”.
“If
it's me against Apple and Facebook, I lose”
Shirky describes the designers of operating systems as “arms dealers
to the social media firms,” attacking the sustained attention essential to
effective learning.
“Beeps and pings and pop-ups and icons, contemporary interfaces
provide an extraordinary array of attention-getting devices, emphasis on
'getting.' Humans are incapable of ignoring surprising new information in our
visual field, an effect that is strongest when the visual cue is slightly above
and beside the area we’re focusing on.”
“The form and content of a Facebook update may be almost
irresistible, but when combined with a visual alert in your immediate
peripheral vision, it is – really, actually, biologically – impossible to
resist. Our visual and emotional systems are faster and more powerful than our
intellect; we are given to automatic responses when either system receives
stimulus, much less both.”
“The industry has committed itself to an arms race for my
students’ attention, and if it’s me against Facebook and Apple, I lose,” writes
Professor Shirky. “Computers are not inherent sources of distraction – they can
in fact be powerful engines of focus – but latter-day versions have been
designed to be, because attention is the substance which makes the whole
consumer internet go.”
Shirky cites further research which shows that multi-tasking on
laptops also disrupts other students.
Exposing
the myth
Decades back tobacco corporations said smoking was good for
people. Then they fought bitterly against the overwhelming evidence that it
destroyed health and killed millions.
Today the myth of effective multi-tasking has invaded the thinking
of intelligent and articulate educators. The work of N Katherine Hayles starts
from the simple and absolutely true premise guiding all effective teaching, to
start where the kids are. It means developing a deep understanding of each
student, engaging them, building on their strengths, minimising their
weaknesses and challenging their misconceptions. This enables them to broaden
their understanding of the world and how to act in it.
But when Hayes' suggestion is to start with students' attachment
to a social media mega-industry, controlled and manipulated for profit by giant
corporations, there's a big problem. Getting the truth out is a first step.
No comments:
Post a Comment