In the past month or so I have seen an article on multitasking and heard a discussion on the radio one morning. The discussions I have seen are usually framed in the context of education and young populations. My take-away message is that multitasking, and the extent to which students in particular think technology is acceptable in their learning environment, changes the memory where information is stored. People tend to overwork their short-term RAM, basically, and store less in long-term memory. In other words, all this electronic stuff causes people to store things in short-term memory.
I notice this when I am doing things on a daily basis. I avoid my cell phone when I am driving unless I am on the highway and the roads and traffic are not bad, because I have had plenty of those moments getting off the phone and not quite remembering which exits on the highway I have passed. When I am on the phone and clicking around playing a game, my attention to the conversation is definitely diminished; I can totally tell when my Mom is doing something else while talking to me as well. I would support laws that limit the use of cell phones while in the driver's seat (to a certain extent, and I still don't know how you enforce a secondary traffic violation well), and am always impressed when I see someone pull over to use their phone. As an aside, I do not think that emergency vehicle drivers should be allowed to use their cell phone while driving if your average citizen is not. What is the difference with regards to the safety of the situation? I also have a problem with police cars that do not come to complete stops at stop signs or that weave in and out of traffic when not in pursuit or who use their lights just to get you to get out of the way (this happened to me).
Anyway, back to multitasking. I think issues of multitasking (in the sense of doing what you are supposed to be doing while also, say, emailing a friend or chatting online) are likely common to the classroom and the workplace. One of the things I intend to do when I am a professor is to have a strict no-cell phone use rule. I guess the real way to enforce this is to learn all the students names and faces and dock points. When I was teaching in China I actually took away a student's cell phone (college freshman) for failure to follow the rules. The classrooms there are much more "old school" though, and here you would probably have parents calling the professor and/or dean and/or president of the University (seriously, this happens!!) if you took away a student's phone. I have also though about how to feel about laptops in the college classroom. I can type fast and can see how some students have bad handwriting or could get more down if they are typing. BUT, what about all the other things they could do during class on a laptop? Some may argue that it is their own problem if they waste classroom time. But that is a waste of the instructors time, and this is what I would resent.
Has your classroom or workplace set rules about personal time (aside from blogging networking or gaming sites)? How can you enforce rules like this? Do you try to limit your use of non-work related technology/resources while at work or school?
4 comments:
So THAT's why I get so forgetful when I try to do too many things at once.
Wait, what was the question?
Exactly, Spark
On the first day of class I tell them that I have a no texting policy. If I see them doing it, I tell them that I expect them to not text during class, but I don't take away their phone.
Most of the time, students don't want to be singled out and embarrassed and that is enough to stop them.
Laptop usage is an issue at the U of M. In 100+ lecture rooms, there are bound to be students watching movies and the students around them are completely distracted by it. I haven't heard of a good way to control that, because the profs say that by the time they walk to a place where the students are using the computers, the students switch the screen.
I do know professors that collect a pile of phones at the beginning of exams or that do take away phones if students use them during lecture to text (or if they ring).
I've had profs tell stories such as this: if a student's phone rings in class, they rush over, answer it and tell whoever is on the other end that this is the professor in X class and the (name of student) is in lecture right now.
I mainly just focus on encouraging respect for me, respect for others, respect for their education, and sometimes how many dollars of tuition go toward each minute of classroom time.
Danielle, I think that I'll take your route - state expectations on day one. Also, I expect their phones to be OFF during exams, not just on silent. And for college students, that is rough.
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