laptops in the classroom: multi-tasking or multi-distracting, & is half-witted attention enough?...

Laptops in theClassroom: Multi-tasking orMulti-distracting,& Is Half-wittedAttentionEnough?

Jeff King, TCU

2010 TFDN ConferenceFt. Worth, TX | June 2010

www.pbs.org – Click “Frontline”

http://www.pbs.org/

(Jeff): Laptops in the classroom?(Student Meredith): A lot of time they’re used forFacebook.

(Student Sam): All the time.

(Student Meredith): If it’s like a really . . . I have aPhysiology class, and you couldn’t take that kind of class unless you had a laptop.

(Student Meredith): The person talked so quickly that your hands, my hands would cramp at the end.

(Student Sam): I still finger type, so . . .

(Student Meredith): It really depends on yourstudents, but a lot of them, I’d say 90% of thetime, people are on Facebook.

(Student Sam): I would always check fantasyfootball whenever I brought my laptop to class, so I just stopped.

(Student Meredith): They’re actually very distract-ing if you’re in stadium seating and someone’s onFacebook, like, two rows down,

and they’re watching pictures . . .

(Student Sam): Watching YouTube videos . . .



. . . which means they’re not attendingto the lesson, engaging with the

material in a focused way . . .

. . . which means they’re not attendingto the lesson, engaging with the

material in a focused way . . .

. . . because . . .

THEY CAN’T!

THEY CAN’T!

(but they’vebeen told alltheir lives thatthey can)

“. . . we are completely capable.”

“. . . self-described multitaskers per-formed much worse on cognitive andmemory tasks that involved distractionthan did people who said they preferredto focus on single tasks.”

-- from research by Clifford Nass, Stanford

“Einstein didn't invent the theory of relativity while multi-tasking at the Swiss patent office.”

--David Meyer, Univ. of Michigan multitasking researcher

The Orienting Response:

Teach students: Multi-tasking

Generation M is NOTbetter at “multi-tasking”

“Multi-tasking” isactually task switching

Trying to direct cognitiveattention to 2 things atonce creates a mental

brown-out

“Multi-tasking” whilestudying = surface learning

striatum

! This is important. Striatum-based memory is

procedural,not pre-frontal cortex-

based.

CLUE

CLUE

CLUE

CLU

E

CLU

E

CLUECLUE

CLUES to why students “just want

to know what to memorize for the test”

Striatum used more in “multi-tasking”

Striatum use during “multi-tasking” is at the expense of the pre-frontal cortex & hippocampus, parts required for deep learning & processing

Striatum stores information about habitual tasks, exactly the kind of task that rote memorization exemplifies

From Hembrooke & Gay (2003):

Suggestions:1st day of class: “‘Multi-tasking’ is B.S.Here’s the proof. We’ll use laptops onlyfor focused learning activities.”“Since cellphones, PDAs, Blackberries,

etc., aren’t used to focus on class content,we won’t use them.”

“The issue isn’t laptops or cellphones ordoodling on a piece of paper. The issueis focus as a necessary skill developed aspart of college-level learning. I will helpyou develop that skill.”

Finally:

. . . many lectures at MIT have no more than oneor two laptops open. If the lecture being present-ed is note-heavy, important and interesting, youwill find a hundred #2 pencils flying over paper &only hear the typing of one or two people catch-ing up on e-mail.

Short List of References:• “Mental Brownout” – Just, M. A., Carpenter, P. A., Keller, T. A., Emery, L.,

Zajac, H., & Thulborn, K. R. (2001). Interdependence of nonoverlapping cortical systems in dual cognitive tasks. NeuroImage, 14, 417-426. (Carnegie Mellon)

• “Striatum” – Foerde, K., Knowlton, B. J., & Poldrack, R. A. (2006). Modulation of competing memory systems by distraction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(31),11778 11783. ‑ (UCLA)

• “Task Switching” – Rubenstein, J. S., Meyer, D. E., & Evans, J. E. (2001). Executive control of cognitive processes in task switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27, 763-797. (Univ. of Michigan)

• “Specific Research about Laptops in Class” – Hembrooke, H., & Gay, G. (2003). The laptop and the lecture: The effects of multitasking in learning environments. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 15(1), 46-65. (Cornell)

• “Self-described ‘Multitasking’ Experts Are Not” – Ophir, E., Nass, C., & Wagner, A. D. (2009, September 15). Cognitive control in media multitaskers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(37), 15583-15587.

A suggestion for developing your own skill atNOT multitasking (i.e., developing skill as a “monotasker”):

• Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life. Winifred Gallagher, 2009.

• Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neouroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom. Rick Hanson with Richard Mendius, 2009.

• The Power of Mindful Learning. Ellen Langer, 1998.

• Mindfulness. Ellen Langer, 1990.

laptops in the classroom: multi-tasking or multi-distracting, & is half-witted attention enough?...

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