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Interesting article with cons and pros of effects of technology on students attention. I know good teachers are competing more and more for kids attention. But I also wonder if students waning abilities to think deeply and critically have as much to do with flaws in our education system/schooling as use of tech.

Susan, I agree with your comment that waning attention have as much to do with flaws in our education system/schooling as use of tech. There's no reason to assume that kids 30 years ago were any more attentive during class or lecture. They simply had far fewer options on where to place their attention. I wonder if traditional classroom where equipped with as many distractions as one can find online how it would effect children's behavior and attention span?

interesting take on the technology that's competing for our attention--creating multi tasking monsters of us all, or as some would argue, ADD junkies with continuous partial attention

Heffernan argues against the theory that technology is to blame for short attention spans.

"There is a widespread belief among teachers that students' constant use of digital technology is hampering their attention spans and ability to persevere in the face of challenging tasks, according to two surveys of teachers being released on Thursday. "

A recent study about fast-paced television programs and children's development finds that attention, problem solving and other skills under the umbrella of "executive function" are harmed by watching some shows.

As our digital devices become part of our everyday lives, and part of the everyday lives of students, what does this say about our "relationship" with technology? Our devices often get more attention than our human relationships. Here is an interesting article on Cyborg Anthropology

No hard news here; but this reminded me of Sherry Turkle and her (misguided, I think) argument that parents are too caught up with their phones to pay attention to their kids. There's a lot more subtlety in this piece. And even though this is literary and not academic, I think there's valuable food for thought re: T561 because of big questions about "real" experience vs. digital or "virtual" experience.

The Knight Center's MOOC on data visualization was a bit smaller than traditional MOOCs (it actually capped enrollment at 2000), but the second version of the same class already has 4000 students registered. It sounds like the professor gave a lot of attention to the students and the projects, and the fact that the numbers went up is a good sign.

I've always wondered what drives VC investments in ed tech firms. Today, Union Square Ventures, a New York-based VC firm, began sharing its internal market research. Scroll down and click on "online education" to see what's caught their attention in the sector. It's very interesting to consider what is included--and excluded!

A look at how technology affects attention spans.

The important thing is not the use of technology, but the new types of content, pedagogy, assessment...

I just logged on to post the same article! The interesting perspective that I got from the article was that the teachers continued to harp on this idea that in order to retain student's attention they needed to constantly "tap-dance" for their class. Instead of learning from this attention shift, teachers are becoming annoyed by it. Use the technology to give the responsibility of engagement to the students and only wear the tap shoes when necessary to facilitate a deeper understanding etc.

A small but very pertinent article in the recent edition of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) by Seth Gurell, Yu-Chun Kuo and Andrew Walker called The Pedagogical Enhancement of Open Education: An Examination of Problem-Based Learning1 is a real gem. The Pedagogical Enhancement of Open Education is a gem because it is focussed on pedagogy and online open learning. Gurell et al argue from a review of the literature and practical experience that problem based learning can work well with online open education. For example, traditional problem-based learning requires the learner to find and review resources which are usually print based materials such as books, journals, newspapers and so on, many of which take time to locate and access. However, using problem-based online learning using open education resources can remove much of the distraction of finding resources and enable greater attention to the learning task. Although problem-based learning (PBL) may not be suitable for all types of learning, a review of the research does indicate that students perform equally well using PBL as they do in traditional learning. Students engaged with PBL also perform better on retention tasks and on explanatory tasks, reveal Gurell et al. There are many sources of open educational resources. Two such examples that are well known are the Open Education Resource (OER) Commons, the Open Courseware Consortium. However, others such as Academic Earth, Scientific Commons, and Project OSCAR are also interesting. The Pedagogical Enhancement of Open Education is a very succinct review of online PBL and its fit with open online learning. Gurell et al have provided an excellent review of the versatility of online open education and how to maximise pedagogy to achieve improved learner outcomes.

A child as young as 9 months can set goals when playing the apps in iphone. More and more parents let children play with their iphones. I-phones, which consist of many interesting apps and colorful designs, are easy to catch children's attention. Easy apps which can help children develop their basic skills (such as counting skills), do have great market and should be developed and improved.

Many of the schools with which I come in to contact- including mine- reinvent the wheel when it comes to acceptable use policy at great expense of time and often little influence of "best practice." Why not make use of the good work and attention that has been deliberated by other educators who have already wrestled through the problem.

This is a list of helpful comments about what to pay attention to by people actively using online platforms to teach.

A growing number of kids at increasingly younger ages are engaging in online social networking today-a development that is leading to a surge of news stories, media attention, and economic investment. In this paper, produced with the generous support of Cisco Systems and the Digital Media and Learning Hub at the University of California, Irvine, scholars Sara Grimes and Deborah Fields argue that these shifts in usage and public discussion demand a better understanding of the ways that social networking sites mediate kids' socializing and the opportunities and limits they place on kids' participation, particularly for young children.

This is not necessarily related to technology but think is relevant to the concern presented by Dr Turkle on 'multitasking'. Many of us and current management have fostered the bad habit of multitasking, responding to the expectation that we will respond immediately, seek to keep ourselves busy to reward our brain... This famous book by Ghoshal introduces the concept of 'active non-action'. Figure 2-1 provides 4 types of managerial behaviors (the detached, procrastinators, frenzied and the purposeful). how many of us are being 'the purposeful' today? 

"But it's become a serious problem. When we don't control our email habit, we are controlled by it. " - somewhat related to the YouTube by dr. Sherry Turkle. I read this article when it was published (working life totally controlled by email I must say).. and sadly I am still addicted...