Freedom, digital distraction and control Annie Murphy Paul has an excellent article in Slate and this publication this week about the issue of digital distraction while learning. A recently published study by psychologist Larry Rosen found that in a short 15-minute period of observation, teenagers spent only 65 percent of their time studying. Their attention drifted after an average of 2 minutes from reading and writing their assignments to activities like Facebook, texting and instant messaging–and all this was while they knew they were being watched. Digital distraction or multitasking is a modern scourge, not just for young people. The question is what to do about it. Control by authority means putting the teacher and school in charge of students’ access to technology: banning cellphones in school, instituting “screens down” policies, and enlisting teachers to police students’ behavior from moment to moment. Control through technology means designing tools to nudge students in the direction of desired use.
Four Skills to Teach Students In the First Five Days of School Jane Mount/MindShift The first few days of school are a vital time to set the right tone for the rest of the year. Many teachers focus on important things like getting to know their students, building relationships and making sure students know what the classroom procedures will be. While those things are important, Alan November, a former teacher-turned-author and lecturer says the most important ideas to hammer home will help students learn on their own for the rest of the year. “The name of the game is to find the right information with the right question,” said November during a workshop at the 2014 gathering of the International Society of Technology in Education in Atlanta. “My job used to be to give you the information, now my job is to teach you how to find the information.” “The best teachers were kids who had really struggled with the material and really understand what it’s like to learn.” “Kids literally take their teachers assignment and Google it,” November said.
Why Teaching Mindfulness Benefits Students’ Learning Teaching Strategies Flickr:Sudhamshu The following is an excerpt from Learning to BREATHE: A Mindfulness Curriculum for Adolescents to Cultivate Emotion Regulation, Attention, and Performance By Patricia C. What do children and adolescents need to be successful in life? There is little doubt that in addition to academic success, we also want our youth to be happy and well. These goals are far from being disconnected: we now realize the fundamental role that social and emotional well-being play in the attainment of academic outcomes. Although the emphasis on academic achievement often captures most of the attention in debates on school reform, important inroads are being made by those who take a more holistic approach to education. Many prominent voices have joined together to call for inclusion of social and emotional learning within K–12 school curricula. [RELATED: The Importance of Teaching Mindfuless] When feelings are not well managed, thinking can be impaired. Moving to Practice 1. 2.
The new marshmallow test: Resisting the temptations of the web By Annie Murphy Paul This story also appeared at: Living rooms, dens, kitchens, even bedrooms: Investigators followed students into the spaces where homework gets done. Pens poised over their “study observation forms,” the observers watched intently as the students—in middle school, high school, and college, 263 in all—opened their books and turned on their computers. For a quarter of an hour, the investigators from the lab of Larry Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University-Dominguez Hills, marked down once a minute what the students were doing as they studied. A checklist on the form included: reading a book, writing on paper, typing on the computer—and also using email, looking at Facebook, engaging in instant messaging, texting, talking on the phone, watching television, listening to music, surfing the web. Photo by Erin Scott “We were amazed at how frequently they multitasked, even though they knew someone was watching,” Rosen says. Another study, carried out at St.
How Opening Up Classroom Doors Can Push Education Forward Transparency is not a word often associated with education. For many parents, the time between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. can feel like a mysterious part of their child’s life. Questioning students about their school day often results in an unsatisfying answer and not every parent has the time to be in constant communication with their student’s teacher. For teachers, transparency can have a distinctly negative connotation. In the political debate, the word is often used in connection to hot button issues like posting teacher salaries and benefits publicly or publishing test scores. “I try to become a bridge between the quantifiable and the qualifiable.” But what if teachers embraced the idea of transparency as a form of activism, a way of shining light on what works in the classroom? Opening one’s classroom to public scrutiny isn’t an easy thing to do. At Mission Hill School in Boston every structure in the school is based on transparency. Related
News: Frequent Cell Phone Use Linked to Anxiety, Lower Grades and Reduced Happiness in Students, Kent State Research Shows Today, smartphones are central to college students’ lives, keeping them constantly connected with friends, family and the Internet. Students’ cell phones are rarely out of reach whether the setting is a college classroom, library, recreational center, cafeteria or dorm room. As cell phone use continues to increase, it is worth considering whether use of the device is related to measurable outcomes important for student success, such as academic performance, anxiety and happiness. Kent State University researchers Andrew Lepp, Ph.D., Jacob Barkley, Ph.D., and Aryn Karpinski, Ph.D., all faculty members in the university’s College of Education, Health and Human Services, surveyed more than 500 university students. Daily cell phone use was recorded along with a clinical measure of anxiety and each student’s level of satisfaction with their own life, or in other words happiness. For more information about Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services, visit www.kent.edu/ehhs.
Kids' Self-Control Is Crucial for Their Future Success Self-control—the ability to regulate our attention, emotions and behaviors—emerges in childhood and grows throughout life, but the skill varies widely among individuals. Past studies have reported that self-control is partially inherited and partially learned and that those with less self-control are more likely to be unemployed, engage in unhealthy behaviors such as overeating, and live a shorter life. A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA tying childhood self-control to health and well-being in adulthood suggests that everyone, not just those most lacking the skill, would benefit from a self-control boost. Psychologist Terrie E. Moffitt of Duke University and her team focused on the self-control of a group of 1,037 children born in 1972 and 1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand. The investigators observed the children and took reports from parents and teachers every two years from the ages of three to 11.
6 Things the Most Productive People Do Every Day Ever feel like you’re just not getting enough done? Know how many days per week you’re actually productive? About 3: People work an average of 45 hours a week; they consider about 17 of those hours to be unproductive (U.S.: 45 hours a week; 16 hours are considered unproductive). We could all be accomplishing a lot more — but then again, none of us wants to be a workaholic either. It’d be great to get tons done and have work/life balance. And who better to ask than Tim Ferriss, author of the international bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek? (Tim’s blog is here and his podcast is here.) Below are six tips Tim offered, the science behind why they work, and insight from the most productive people around. 1) Manage Your Mood Most productivity systems act like we’re robots — they forget the enormous power of feelings. If you start the day calm it’s easy to get the right things done and focus. Here’s Tim: I try to have the first 80 to 90 minutes of my day vary as little as possible. Research shows email:
The Myth Of Multitasking Up next, we'll be focusing on you and your true love - your smartphone. Think about it. Are you lost without it? Inconsolable if the two of you are separated? Willing to walk into a lamppost rather than look up while texting? Is it the object of your desire? And your romance is about to be taken to a new level. Now the two of you need never be separated for even one moment. My next guest says our technology-addicted lifestyle and our nonstop multitasking may be affecting our ability to concentrate, manage our emotions, even think creatively. DR. FLATOW: Excuse me for my cough. NASS: I'm fearful and optimistic. FLATOW: How distracted are we today? NASS: Remarkably so. FLATOW: I'm Ira Flatow. But people used to say, oh, television. NASS: Well, it's true that radio and television do distract us. We also have a number of new devices. FLATOW: Yeah. FLATOW: Yeah, but there are people who say, you know, I'm great at multitasking. FLATOW: And it's quite noticeable on tests. NASS: Yeah.
Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction By all rights, Vishal, a bright 17-year-old, should already have finished the book, ’s “Cat’s Cradle,” his summer reading assignment. But he has managed 43 pages in two months. He typically favors , and making digital videos. On YouTube, “you can get a whole story in six minutes,” he explains. Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. “Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. But even as some parents and educators express unease about students’ digital diets, they are intensifying efforts to use technology in the classroom, seeing it as a way to connect with students and give them essential skills. But he also plays video games 10 hours a week. Growing Up With Gadgets
How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done - 5 Expert Tips Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my first book become a Wall Street Journal bestseller. To check it out, click here. Some days the to-do list seems bottomless. Just looking at it is exhausting. We all want to know how to stop being lazy and get more done. So I decided to call a friend who manages to do this — and more. Cal Newport impresses the heck out of me. He has a full-time job as a professor at Georgetown University, teaching classes and meeting with students.He writes 6 (or more) peer-reviewed academic journal papers per year.He’s the author of 4 books including the wonderful “So Good They Can’t Ignore You.” And yet he finishes work at 5:30PM every day and rarely works weekends. No, he does not have superpowers or a staff of 15. Below you’ll get Cal’s secrets on how you can better manage your time, stop being lazy, get more done — and be finished by 5:30. 1) To-Do Lists Are Evil. To-do lists by themselves are useless. Here’s Cal: Sum Up
Listen while you work: What music does to your brain Damn. I forgot my headphones. Nothing has a more negative impact on my day than showing up to our office without them. Like most people, music is a huge part of my life and my tastes are constantly changing based on how I feel or what I’m doing. I listen to the most music while I work, sifting through playlists, from jazz, to indie pop, to electronica, on what seems to be a never-ending search for the perfect tunes to keep me in the zone. When I looked back at all my favorite playlists, I wondered what effect music has had on my work and more specifically, which types of music have had the most impact. I thought it’d be interesting to take a dive into the science behind the deep power of music to find out if it actually helps you work better. Why you love music Whether you’re listening to the driving beat of a Daft Punk song or the opening chords of a mellow Jack Johnson track, both have an effect on your brain that is not seen in any other animal. ‘Two cheeseburgers equals one orgasm.’ – PBS
With Tech Tools, How Should Teachers Tackle Multitasking In Class? Important research compiled on the effects of students multitasking while learning shows that they are losing depth of learning, getting mentally fatigued, and are weakening their ability to transfer what they have learned to other subjects and situations. Educators as well as students have noticed how schoolwork suffers when attention is split between homework and a buzzing smartphone. Many students, like Alex Sifuentes, who admit to multitasking while studying, know the consequences well. “When I was grounded for a couple of months and didn’t have my phone, I got done extra early with homework,” Sifuentes wrote in response to Annie Murphy Paul’s article, “How Does Multitasking Change the Way Kids Learn?” Parents also see a big difference in their kids’ studying habits. “Devices that once were just an entertainment tool are also becoming our educational and work tools.” “Look, it’s not going away. “Look, it’s not going away. How will students stay focused? Related
Role-Playing Game Upends College Lecture and Ignites Fire in Students Carsten Tolkmit/Flickr The excerpt below is from the book “Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College,” by Barnard University professor Mark C. Carnes. Everyone responds to a role- immersion game in a different way. From the start he sought an edge over the other students. As he delivered his speech, Gilberto noticed that his heart was pounding. Other Reacting students care less about competition and instead enjoy imagining what it’s like to be someone else. Eric enjoyed the competitive banter and the debates. Often students find this surprising. In the first game, she was assigned the role of Thrasybulus, the general who led the radical democrats in Athens in 403 b.c.E. I really bought into it. Perhaps the oddest aspect of Reacting is how readily students surrender their skepticism and, like Ashleigh, “buy into” Reacting. Sometimes, however, the subversions are more explicit. On the day of the quiz, Ingrid Norton, a graduating senior, arrived early. As indeed they are.