Group items tagged

If we are feeling distracted, we should pay attention to that distraction.  It may be telling us that there is something better elsewhere, something more deserving of our attention.  Or it may be telling us we are on the wrong path, just when we thought we were zooming in to that perfect conclusion of a paragraph or a project.   Or it may be telling us we need better tools, that the set-up we have is not fully appreciating the particularities and peccadilloes of our own work life and demands.  Or it may be telling us that we need better partners, or a better method, someone or something to help us over the hurdle.  Or it may just be telling us we are working too hard and we need to put down what we are doing and go outside for a walk, or stop for a cup of tea, or go for a run, or maybe just check out Facebook for a while.  Distraction is our friend because it reminds us that we are fully human, not just workers, and that our lives are complex and, trying to shut out the complexity, may in fact turn out to be the least productive way to lead a life.

Attention Alert: A Study on Distraction Reveals Some Surprises Distractions from our brains hurt as much or more than those from our tech!

Engaging lessons are the best way to ensure students are not distracted. A couple of good tips re expectations too.

Strategies for dealing with off-task behaviors. Study of Law students sheds light.

"Don't go crazy with your images. The last thing you need is get distracted by shiny new tools, and the last thing your fans need is too look at photos that look like an acid trip in Las Vegas. Keep it simple and sincere."

Unplugging isn't realistic. Plug in better is a solution. Get rid of the digital distractions with a targeted approach.

An alternative way of looking at 'balance' and 'distraction' with digital devices. Really great ideas for students and teachers here.

"Telling a brief story around a single photograph seems like such a simple idea. Add to that a sharing element and you think: another clever web platform to distract and amuse us. But there's a lot more to Cowbird.The interface is beautiful, as one would expect from Jonathan Harris, Cowbird's creator. The Web artist and programmer behind the 2006 Web project "We Feel Fine," Harris thinks big. His goal with Cowbird: nothing less than to create "the world's first library of human experience," according to the site.While you can add audio, the focus is on the image, which floats front and center, full screen, with the accompanying story beneath in plain text. To get a feel, you'll need to spend some time with the stories posted thus far, as the site suggests."

"Below are some of the top web apps for students looking for helpful tools to focus while online, as selected by Google's Chrome Web Apps Guru, Rahul Roy-Chowdhury. StayFocusd - StayFocusd is a productivity extension that helps you focus on work by restricting the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites.  You can restrict entire sites or just parts of them for as long or short of a time as necessary. Todo.ly- Todo.ly is an intuitive and easy to use online to-do list and task manager. It helps you get organized and get things done by organizing your tasks into projects and subprojects, adding customized icons and labels, and assigning due dates to your tasks. Read Later Fast - This app lets you save pages to read later - online or offline, and fast. All you have to do is right click and save the page for later to avoid having too many open tabs on your browser. Write Space - Write Space is a customizable, full-screen text editor that lives in your browser. It is designed to minimize the distractions that come between you and your writing.  This app also auto saves your work and works offline. StudyStack - StudyStack helps students memorize anything with millions of flashcards that have already been added to the site or the ability to create your own.  There are dozens of flashcard categories including foreign languages, math, LSAT and GRE. Graph.tk - An app for math majors, Graph.tk is an app that brings the graphing capabilities of your calculator to the browser. It's easy to use and good for plotting graphs based on equations. WordReference - For anyone taking a foreign language course or studying abroad, this extension gets you the translations you need in a fast and easy way.  Since it's an extension and placed right next to the address bar, you don't even have to leave the site you're on for a quick translation. BONUS APP: Panic Button - Ok, this app won't help you pass your class, but it might just come in handy during

This is a nice post that describes how you can use Parental Controls to turn your Mac into a distraction-free zone.

"How can you force YouTube videos to fill the browser and NOT show all the distracting stuff? If  the original YouTube video is located at .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNHR6IQJGZs  (This is the Matt Cutts video on "How search works") You can modify the URL to include the modified argument "watch_popup"  (as below) http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=BNHR6IQJGZs

Great Article via Ali F. The lecture has its place. Asking students to close their laptops has its place. But, failing to explore new possibilities for education prompted by emerging technologies does not serve the interests of either group.