Digital Footprint

What do you do online?

Graphic adapted from easel.ly

Multitasking...and Mediocrity?

PBS offers two interesting videos about how technology is changing our lives: Growing Up Online and its sequel, Digital Nation. Both films prompt important and complex conversations surrounding technology, but I want to focus on multitasking for this post. 

When I interviewed for my first publishing job out of college in Boston, one interviewer asked whether I was an accomplished multitasker. "Yes!" I exclaimed, mostly because I was 21 and thought that was the right answer.

But accomplished multitasking is really an achievement in mediocrity: divided attention produces fair-to-middling results. "Digital Nation" frames this conversation about multitasking around the wired world--texting, email, Facebook, and videos, all while sitting in class and listening to your professor--but I don't limit my skepticism of its efficacy to technology. 

Sometimes I need to watch my toddler and make dinner at the same time. My focus is divided, though, and occasionally my dinner craftsmanship results in ordering pizza on those nights. Do you ever drive and text? Stop it. Stop it now; we won't even have that conversation. "Digital Nation" cites a statistic that texting while driving is more dangerous than drunk driving. 

In the film, MIT students were confident in their abilities to multitask and remarked that their professors just didn't get it. A Stanford study found, however, that multitasking significantly impeded students' performances.

Successful multitasking has nothing to do with how smart a person is, and my harrumphing isn't meant to be a value judgment about anyone's intelligence. To complete high-level tasks, you need to focus. Sure, you may be able to categorize widgets while texting your friend. But you can't synthesize multiple sources while supporting a thesis AND watch YouTube videos of adorable pugs....You clicked on that link, didn't you? See, this is what I'm talking about. Focus! ;)

Teens in particular are at a disadvantage when it comes to multitasking. The pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain necessary for executive function, doesn't fully develop until around age 24. Executive function involves decision-making, analyzing and applying information, planning, and budgeting time, to name some uses. This is why teens tend to be impulsive and take risks--their brains haven't developed the "stop-and-consider" warning yet. So kids are already playing without a full deck and then they try to multitask, which requires quick decision-making and constantly shifting focus. Really, multitasking is a disservice to students. They don't learn how to think deeply about a topic, connect details to the big picture, and invest energy into a project.

You know what's more valuable than multitasking? Prioritizing and time management. Yes, sometimes you may need to do two things at once. But understanding the hierarchy of what's important and the most effective ways to execute tasks will serve students well in the future. It's better to do a few things well rather than everything poorly. 



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/

Sir Ken Robinson and Death Valley: A Review

TED Talks are essentially nerd candy and Sir Ken Robinson, brilliant and innovative educationalist, is our Willy Wonka. 




Sir Robinson delivers an engaging, irreverent, and rather British presentation on "How to Escape Education's Death Valley." Death Valley, of course, is the driest place in America--nothing grows there and everything dies. You don't want to go there, even though that linked site has a pretty heavy pitch for tourism. Sir Robinson's reference to Death Valley is an analogy to the dormancy of our current education system; we need to transform the system and create a culture of possibility rather than muddle through our educational desert.

Sir Robinson begins by skewering No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and explaining that there are three necessities for learning to take place: diversity, curiosity, and creativity. Sir Robinson takes umbrage with NCLB for its assembly line rubber stamp approach toward education. He advocates for a "broad curriculum that celebrates various talents" (Robinson 2013). Students are diverse in their experiences, learning styles, and interests, and how we teach should reflect those differences. We must also stoke students' curiosity and cultivate their desire to learn. Robinson questions why anyone is surprised that kids get fidgety when we "sit them at desks hour after hour with low-grade clerical work" (Robinson 2013). Creativity is the third essential category, for both teachers and students. Teaching, Robinson argues, is a "creative profession" because effective teachers "mentor, stimulate, provoke, and engage"; teaching is about facilitating learning (Robinson 2013). 

Although Sir Robinson doesn't reference technology explicitly in the presentation above, I kept thinking about those types of tools while watching him speak. In this clip, he's more specific about the transformative properties of technology in education, declaring that the tools themselves are changing cultures. It's not much of a leap, then, to think about how Robinson's key traits--diversity, curiosity, and creativity--will come from discerning technology integration.

One of my favorite pastimes involves sitting in a circle with a bunch of smart people and delving into philosophical discussions about how we'll transform education and save the world--but let's not get too carried away in our revolutionary daydreams. I don't write or legislate policy--I've been waiting for them to call me; they've probably just been busy--so at the end of the day we need to work within the framework of our realities. And the reality is that, absolutely, teaching is a creative profession and my job is to facilitate learning and help students uncover their potentials. I also need to meet state standards and testing regulations and all the other things that keep schools funded. 

I get inspired and psyched when I see presentations like Sir Robinson's, but ever practical, I also want to know how to achieve this educational utopia:

Diversity

I loved sitting in college lecture courses. Writing research papers makes me happy. My college friends thought I was nuts. Lots of students don't learn this way, and we need to offer resources for these kids to meet the same Common Core standards. Podcasts, videos, lessons masquerading as games. We have lots of options for varying teaching techniques and embracing the diversity of our students.

Curiosity

It should be obvious, but when students are interested in what they're learning, then that's all the motivation they need. Project-based learning gives students purpose; they're not just doing fill-in-the-blank packets night after night. They work toward a goal, often collaborating, and end up with something real to show for all of their hard work. 

Creativity

Students can make films, write songs, or self-publish books, among myriad other possibilities. When they see their final creations, they not only learn the necessary material, but feel pride in their accomplishments and and could even showcase their talents when applying to colleges.

As curmudgeonly as I may often be when it comes to new technology, I'm really excited about these ideas. A lesson plan for a year-long online newspaper project for an English is fomenting in my head....We'd cover lots of standards regarding writing, style, grammar, editing, etc., and the students could distribute their news site to faculty and parents. These real-life projects also show kids what working in these environments are like, and maybe pique an interest in further study of journalism or other subject areas. 


Robinson, Sir Ken. "How to Escape Education's Death Valley." TED Talk. April 2013.

Back to the Future: Embracing Classroom Tech [Vision of Technology]

I'm studying to become an English teacher not only for my love of literature (and grammar!), but also because I want to help my students develop their own voices, communicate with a greater audience, and discover their unique talents. 

I admit, I typically approach new technology with some level of trepidation. It took me a really long time to use a Kindle. (So many books in one place!) I'm still a little unclear on the purpose of Twitter. 

That's why I want to weave technology into the classroom intentionally. There are reasons to use traditional, kinesthetic-based learning methods, but our ever-changing technology provides approaches for engaging students, personalizing assignments, and encouraging creativity. Students become invested in what they're studying and forget that it's schoolwork. 

Check out this video from Edutopia:

So to recap: technology is scary, invigorating, expansive, and absolutely crucial for meaningful learning. Yes, I’m going to encourage you to unplug your video games and go play outside—but why not take your camera with you and create a photo montage that tells the story of what you discover out there?

My job isn’t to give you all the answers; it’s to help you craft your own questions, devise a method to find those answers, and challenge you to push yourself further than you thought possible. 

So how does that work?

Well, it starts with connecting to my students. To devise interest-based projects, I need to know who my students are. Maybe we can create a classroom Facebook page where students get to know each other, ask questions, post thoughts, and keep the brain activity sparking outside of school. 

Once my students are connected to each other, we expand. Global citizenship is invaluable in a world where information spills across borders, and students need to understand other cultures and languages in order to move about the world. Moodle connects students across continents.

Since my focus is English, I’d like to institute a year-long online newspaper project. Students can try out different roles—copywriter, managing editor, story manager, etc.—and see what fits. They’ll learn how to do research, write and edit articles, and collaborate to engineer a functioning paper for students and parents to access online. At the end of the year, we can use a video journal to reflect on the experience. 

Learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and students need to see how tech skills are relevant across curricula. in eighth grade, my English and math teachers banded together and devised an overlapping project for us: We had to write a story infused with math problems. I wrote about the my first punk rock concert with my friend, Jennie (true), and threw in math problems that involved us scaling the building and outrunning some bad guys (less true). I still have that project some…oh…several years later. 

Clearly, school districts will have varying levels of access to technology. Some schools may have SMART boards, while others have more limited resources. We need to be mindful of the socioeconomic realties of diverse student populations. Public libraries and Internet cafes are available to everyone; alternatively, students working in groups can share iPads or laptops for completing projects. 

This is just a general outline with a few examples of integrating technology into the classroom. In five years, we’ll have entirely new technological capabilities—and if we cultivate our tech literacy by following the pulse of emerging trends, we’ll be ready for the changes.

Now go outside and play. ;)

Always cite your sources!

Fink, Zachary. "An Introduction to Technology Integration." Online video. Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation, 12 December 2012. Web. 2 December 2014. <www.edutopia.org>