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
Why Learning and Multitasking Don’t Mix 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. Although the students had been told at the outset that they should “study something important, including homework, an upcoming examination or project, or reading a book for a course,” it wasn’t long before their attention drifted: Students’ “on-task behavior” started declining around the two-minute mark as they began responding to arriving texts or checking their Facebook feeds. Concern about young people’s use of technology is nothing new, of course.
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.
Fact, Opinion, False Claim, or Untested Claim Click here for a translation into Serbian by Branca Fiagic. Fact Opinion False claim Untested claim A thorny issue in critical reading involves the ambiguous terms fact and opinion Let's begin with opinion. There is no need to argue against opinions when they are recognized as self-reports rather than as claims about the real world. Most people only count statements proven by observation as facts. We need an enlarged view of fact as any statement about the real world that can be shown to be true, i.e., that is supported by converging evidence. Kinds of facts, with false factual claims, and untested claims Empirical facts Empirical facts are verified by observation, e.g., The Pacific is the largest ocean. Historical facts, though not available for observation today, are also empirically verifiable through the convergent observations of the past as recorded in primary sources. Untested claims In some cases, there is some evidence to support an empirical claim, but that evidence is not convergent.
Divided attention and memory: evidence of substantial interference ... iTeo for iPad - oral language learning tool by the University of Luxembourg developed initially as a research project by Script iTeo for iPad - oral language learning tool by the University of Luxembourg developed initially as a research project by Script Chaque enfant entre à l'école avec des richesses langagières qu'il s'agit d'explorer, d'exploiter et de développer. Pour mettre en place l'apprentissage langagier avec les enfants il nous faut comprendre comment l'enfant utilise ses langues dans ses divers contextes, donc avec différentes personnes dans des contextes scolaires et extra-scolaires. Pour accentuer cet apprentissage il nous faut créer des occasions diverses et multiples où les enfants désirent s'échanger sur des sujets qui leur importent. Le choix, l'autonomie, la responsabilité, l'écoute et le respect sont donc parmi les principes fondamentaux qu'il s'agit de valoriser et de développer. Le but de ce projet est d'aider les enseignant/e/s à observer, documenter et analyser les textes oraux des enfants ainsi que leurs pratiques scolaires autour de l'outil iTEO.
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
Understand uncertainty: probabilities Probabilities and statistics: they are everywhere, but they are hard to understand and can be counter-intuitive. So what's the best way of communicating them to an audience that doesn't have the time, desire, or background to get stuck into the numbers? Ian Short explores modern visualisation techniques and finds that the right picture really can be worth a thousand words. Visualising probabilities: an example What is the probability that a woman who tests positive for breast cancer actually has breast cancer? Figure 1: A tree diagram describing the outcomes of a mammography test. A tree diagram, such as figure 1, can help answer this question. Why visualise probabilities? Visualisations like the graph in figure 1 can enliven information, grab people's attention, inspire, and influence. The complex set of probabilities in the mammography test question is explained simply and attractively in figure 1, which guides you through the logic necessary to dissect the problem. What not to do
Classroom Laptop Users Distract Others As Well As Themselves Thursday, April 25, 2013 It won’t surprise anyone to learn that having a laptop computer open in a lecture class is an invitation to distraction for the user. But what about the students sitting nearby? A new study by a group of researchers at McMaster and York universities, both in Canada, finds evidence that laptop use in college classrooms distracts not just laptop owners, but their classmates as well. The researchers begin their article, published last month in the journal Computers & Education, by reviewing what we know about learning while our attention is divided: “Research suggests that we have limited resources available to attend to, process, encode, and store information for later retrieval. When we eventually retrieve information that was processed without interruptions, as a primary task, we are likely to experience minimal errors. These findings “are especially significant when considered in the context of student learning,” the authors note: The authors conclude: