Students are expert multitaskers - reality or myth?

Multitasking: Do we need to deeply engage in everything or maybe not everything is that important that it requires our undivided attention! Perhaps we can afford to partially attend to a few things at once? Or is there a serious outbreak of distracted students who cannot concentrate and focus, who have a disturbingly short attention span? Read on ...

• Stoooopid ... why the Google generation isn’t as smart as it thinks in the Times Online is an interesting article that may all be ‘moral panic’ about the loss of the ‘skills of concentration’ and the horror of our distracted students but it certainly is thought provoking. What is the potential of our students being distracted by the use of laptops with wireless internet connections during lessons? How can this sort of classroom be managed for effective learning?
  
• The Atlantic.com published the provocative article, Is Google making us stupid? Do we risk becoming ‘pancake people’ spread wide and thin as we rely on the web to fill us up with content and forget about deep thinking? This is indeed a most interesting (and I daresay controversial) account of how the internet has affected our concentration and the way we think. I must admit to being sceptical about this missive but it sure makes a good read (i.e. if deep reading hasn’t become a struggle for you!).
  
• Some research (published as The laptop and the lecture: the effects of multitasking in learning environments ) by Helene Hembrooke and Geri Gay at Cornell University confirm the well-established research findings on the negative effects of multitasking on performance where one group was allowed to browse, search and engage in social networking using their laptops throughout a lecture then tested immediately after. Interesting findings when further analysis was done on the laptop group.
  
• Information behaviour of the researcher of the future reports the findings of a study commissioned by the British Library and JISC to identify how young people (the so-called Google generation) access and interact with digital resources. This report includes a discussion on the myths and realities of the Google generation, skills gaps and the implications and challenges.
  
  
  Certainly some interesting ideas ...

Learning with digital technology

What does the research say about the education benefits of learning with digital technology? Well quite a lot - and not much!

• Kathryn Moyle and Susanne Owen (University of Canberra) have put together a very readable literature review: Students' voices: Learning with technology (2008) which describes some of the research on students' expectations about learning with technologies. It gives us a great insight into students access to computers, the applications students use and their proficiency with ICT tasks. It notes that there is a limited amount of Australian research and little research which looks at deeper levels of student learning with digital technologies.
• The Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment (Boston College) published the article (2005), Learning with technology: the impact of laptop use on students achievement - great title! This is certainly something we would like to know. This study reports that students scored significantly higher test scores and grades in writing (greater length and higher quality), English and mathematics when immersed in a laptop program. These results were probably positively influenced by the teachers that volunteered for the program. However there are some interesting observations made that make this worth reading.
• Cisco Systems commissioned a literature review on emergent findings on technology use in schools by the Metiri Group, Technology in schools: What the research says (2006). They make the opening comment that although after three decades of computers in schools, their use remains controversial (interesting!). A range of types of technologies are examined: TV, radio, calculators, interactive whiteboards, quick-response systems, portable ICT devices, virtual learning, computing laboratories and 1:1 ratio of computers to students (this is the only section I have read to date). The trends and research (both descriptive and rigorous) is examined in relation to knowledge and skills, content expertise, information processing and visualisation, higher-order thinking and sound reasoning and authentic learning experiences. A great starting point for some further reading.