Helping STudents Manage Attention and Distraction Through Technology
Course Summary
For a subject that many an educator has had to deal with, Dr. Michelle Miller tackles the importance of distractions that students have in class. She focuses on meta cognition, attention and distraction research. Then, she works into how technology affects it or can contribute to the distractions in class. The name suggests that the course would be more about technology, but it seems to be more of a course on the importance of attention loss and distractions with a touch of how technology can play a role in that within the classroom. Some practical exercises are introduced to demonstrate the lack of attention or amount of distraction that the students have.
Why Did I Choose This Course?
Because my course has computer lab orientated time, and the students can use the computers to follow along with Power Points and activities, I am not able to keep a definitive no technology rule in my classrooms. I wanted to take this course to see how other educators tackle this issue. I know that a bunch of people just say no cellphones, etc, but we all know they still try to use them. I don't want to “ignore” the issue by just assuming they are using them for the right reasons, but I also don't want the students to think they can do whatever they want on their phones or laptops just because they showed up to class.
Personal Reflections
Have you ever had a student laugh in the middle of a serious lecture and practically start snorting for about 30 seconds off and on? I have. In fact, this past semester it happened to me in my Introduction to Web Programming class. You would expect that this came from a student sitting in the back of the class trying to “hide” what they were doing, right? Nope. It happened right in the front row, literally in front of where I stood as I lectured. It wasn't a one time occurrence either.I felt the class reminded me more about how others can be distracted from those who are using things like technology in class when they shouldn't be. That isn't fair to the other students when their focus can't remain on the coursework because a student is watching a movie and reacting to it verbally. Plus, when a person is in the front row, everyone behind them can see what is going on, and that is a distraction itself.
Dr. Miller brought up a good point about how we think that we are “good multi-taskers”, but in essence when we do more than one thing something suffers. I always felt that I was good at doing more than one thing … i.e. listening to music or having a show on while working on homework, but she had valid points about something lacking because enough attention isn't given to it. Even if the music is just background noise, it is technically getting a “lack of attention” to it while I am doing my homework. So, I can agree in that way that something will always be receiving less attention.
The research suggests that we don't “take in new information … form new memories, if we aren't paying focused attention” to what we are doing. That point hit me more strongly. It goes along with thinking that we are good multi-taskers. On the other hand, I find that I seem to be less focused on a task if I don't have music or something on in the background. So, it makes me wonder if there is a certain point where a balance is achieved, or is that just a false sense of balance?
Finally, there was a part where Dr. Miller talked about students' thinking that just because they are in the class, they are somehow absorbing the information. She pointed out that unless they are actively working with that information, instead of being distracted texting or watching movies, it won't be retained because their attention isn't focused on learning. I found it interesting that research doesn't narrow down certain types of distractions as limited to certain age groups. All age groups can be equally impacted by the same distractions. That makes a lot of sense too.
New Approaches
I plan to be a bit more proactive about walking around the room to show a presence near the students. Currently I stay longer in the front of the classroom. I think that if I was walking around, it would deter some students from openly watching non-class videos. It could work as a deterrent for minor offenders after they are caught once or twice to stop doing it.Because some of the classes I'm teaching were taken more online for the bulk of their semesters, I don't feel there was a solid message about technology usage during class time in the syllabus. I plan to make that message specifically listed in the coming semesters. We have an AI usage section in our syllabus. I think the appropriate use of other technology can be put into there as well. I think having a clear policy stated will also help the students to have their limitations set up to start with.
My Predictions
People will still try to get away with using their phones for games or their computers for games and videos. My hope is to lessen that amount, and I think that it can be done with the approaches I'm looking at implementing.