multitasking posts - parent . thesis

January 29, 2008 6:30 AM PST

Profs compete for students' attention

by Amy Tiemann

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"...Nobody is in the room. The professor is just another open browser window, 1 of 10."
--UNC graduate student on the distracted classroom experience

Anyone...Hawley-
Smoot tariff act?

Immersion in online technology and media has fundamentally changed the way our minds work, the way we gather information and split our attention. It may be harder than ever for educators to avoid coming across like the monotonous economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I taught high school 10 years ago, and in many ways I am thankful that I was teaching in the era before networked laptops.

I was a talented teacher, but let's face it, when you are trying to convince 16-year-olds that they really are interested in learning chemistry at 8:30 in the morning, it helps to have a captive audience.

Now teachers face new pressures: competing for their students' attention inside the classroom, and presenting material in a way that resembles the variety of mass media that teens consume on average more than 40 hours a week.

Topics:: Kids,; Culture,; Pop culture,; Technology

Tags:: multimedia,; multitasking,; attention,; ADD,; education

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About parent . thesis

Today's parents may live and work on the cutting edge, but we didn't grow up in a digital era. (parent.thesis) brings you the latest news and musings about life raising kids in today's 24-7, hyperconnected world. MojoMom.com creator Amy Tiemann and open-source software pioneer Michael Tiemann are a 21st-century couple. They take a leap of faith as parents and build their parachute on the way down, living by the motto, "We aren't raising our children for the world we live in, we're raising them for the world they'll live in." Disclosure.

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