One of the biggest complaints I get from teachers is that their students seem so distracted all the time. Often, their feeling is that the technology is not helping with this problem. Clicking from task to task, website to website, especially while the teacher is speaking, drives teachers themselves to distraction as they wonder why, in a world where everything is possible, students often do more poorly than ever before on assignments. Class discussions reveal shallow thinking about a topic, and the idea of students being able to plow through informative text and create a valid argument as required in the new Common Core Standards seems incredulous to some. Student notes and written work are sometimes incoherent or obviously copy-and-paste, and papers are lost in cyberspace as often as they were left at home or in lockers.
Myself, I find that adult learners seem to be just as distracted. Rarely now do cell phones not go off during a class I teach, rarely now do all the teachers in a group seem to be paying attention. Even when I think I'm at my most engaging self and am absolutely convinced that the topic is important, someone in the audience will be checking e-mail, flipping from website to website, sometimes even grading online work from their students back at school.
We don't read for detail anymore, either. A class I regularly teach had a five-item "bring to the workshop" list. I sent it out via e-mail ten days before the class would meet for the first time, and usually half or less of the teachers who were to attend the class brought all the items. Frustrating. The eighth time I offered the class, I attached a sound file to the e-mail, which was a file of me reading the e-mail aloud. The text still accompanied this message. This time, eight out of ten teachers brought all five items. Better, but not total success.
Another example: Over the last two weeks, I picked up huge stacks of homework for a college class from about 48 teachers. Several sets of this homework have one or more of five required pieces totally missing. The directions handed out in print were very clear, and were repeated at all three sessions of the class orally as well. Reminder e-mails went out a week before the final class met. Maybe they thought I wouldn't check the homework, or maybe they really didn't attend to the requirements.
What does this say about us? We are all driven to distraction, and that distraction is taking away from our focus. Sometimes, 'multi-tasking' is really not 'tasking' at all!
What should we do?
Maybe we should go back to keeping that proverbial to-do list. If getting on the device to look at the list means you will also feel the need to check three e-mail accounts, read some blog articles, click on a few other things, before you actually start on the prioritized list, then perhaps you need to put that list on paper instead of your device. Maybe we should turn the e-mail OFF and just check it periodically throughout the day. Maybe we should mute the cell phone ringer or turn the phone off, and just check it for messages on breaks.
And maybe, just maybe, we ought to think about the example we set for our students when we ourselves are unable to be attentive to the task at hand. Maybe, just maybe, we ought to think about how and why we need to teach organizational skill to our students as a huge priority. If we truly want to meet and exceed the Common Core Standards, then helping our students get to the point where they are able to focus and concentrate on the problem at hand might just be the true key to getting there.
Myself, I find that adult learners seem to be just as distracted. Rarely now do cell phones not go off during a class I teach, rarely now do all the teachers in a group seem to be paying attention. Even when I think I'm at my most engaging self and am absolutely convinced that the topic is important, someone in the audience will be checking e-mail, flipping from website to website, sometimes even grading online work from their students back at school.
We don't read for detail anymore, either. A class I regularly teach had a five-item "bring to the workshop" list. I sent it out via e-mail ten days before the class would meet for the first time, and usually half or less of the teachers who were to attend the class brought all the items. Frustrating. The eighth time I offered the class, I attached a sound file to the e-mail, which was a file of me reading the e-mail aloud. The text still accompanied this message. This time, eight out of ten teachers brought all five items. Better, but not total success.
Another example: Over the last two weeks, I picked up huge stacks of homework for a college class from about 48 teachers. Several sets of this homework have one or more of five required pieces totally missing. The directions handed out in print were very clear, and were repeated at all three sessions of the class orally as well. Reminder e-mails went out a week before the final class met. Maybe they thought I wouldn't check the homework, or maybe they really didn't attend to the requirements.
What does this say about us? We are all driven to distraction, and that distraction is taking away from our focus. Sometimes, 'multi-tasking' is really not 'tasking' at all!
What should we do?
Maybe we should go back to keeping that proverbial to-do list. If getting on the device to look at the list means you will also feel the need to check three e-mail accounts, read some blog articles, click on a few other things, before you actually start on the prioritized list, then perhaps you need to put that list on paper instead of your device. Maybe we should turn the e-mail OFF and just check it periodically throughout the day. Maybe we should mute the cell phone ringer or turn the phone off, and just check it for messages on breaks.
And maybe, just maybe, we ought to think about the example we set for our students when we ourselves are unable to be attentive to the task at hand. Maybe, just maybe, we ought to think about how and why we need to teach organizational skill to our students as a huge priority. If we truly want to meet and exceed the Common Core Standards, then helping our students get to the point where they are able to focus and concentrate on the problem at hand might just be the true key to getting there.