Colorful, informative graphical mindmap by Jane Genovese at Learning FUNdamentals in Australia for high school students on how to focus in the age of distraction. The branches include taking time to reflect and review, creating rituals/habits, how to work; managing your space, taking a digital technology detox, and help for addicts. From Learning Fundamentals. Also has a presentation for use with with these learning outcomes:
By the end of "The Facebook Effect" workshop students will:
1.have developed an understanding of how social network sites (e.g. Facebook) are highly addictive;
2. have developed an understanding of the many benefits of working in a focused manner in a distraction free environment;
3. have access to a range of tools to help them eliminate distractions in their work environment;
4. have a deeper understanding of how multitasking can slow down their mental processes and lead to poorer learning outcomes; and
5. be aware of strategies to enhance their focus and concentration
Blog post by Ann Michaelsen, January 27, 2012
"Have you ever sat down in front of your computer, expecting a lot of work to be done in a certain amount of time, only to find that you have done nothing work-related at all? Or that you've done a lot - just not what you planned to do?
Many people are thinking about the way we spend our time and what gets our attention in this digital age. Howard Rheingold calls it infotention and I've been learning a lot about it recently thanks to his challenging but rewarding online course, "Introduction to Mind Amplifiers." It's a five-week experience using asynchronous forums, blogs, wikis, mindmaps, social bookmarks, synchronous audio, video, chat, and Twitter. Participation requires a serious commitment of time and attention by every member of the learning group. Believe me, the skill of staying focused on what is important certainly proves to be helpful here!
The world demands "infotention"
Infotention is a word I came up with to describe the psycho-social-techno skill/tools we all need to find our way online today, a mind-machine combination of brain-powered attention skills with computer-powered information filters. ~ Howard Rheingold"
Excellent resource page for building intelligence dashboard using RSS feeds, Yahoo Pipes, persistent searches, etc. Rheingold uses short videos (usually <10 minutes) to staircase steps for building the dashboard.