Divided Attention: Multitasking in the Classroom?

David Glenn has an interesting article in The Chronicle Review, Divided Attention, that summarizes recent (and some far past) research about multitasking and mobile devices, and its effect in the classroom. Nothing dramatically new, but some interesting points are made, particularly at the end:

"One of the deepest questions in this field," Nass says, "is whether media multitasking is driven by a desire for new information or by an avoidance of existing information. Are people in these settings multitasking because the other media are alluring—that is, they're really dying to play Freecell or read Facebook or shop on eBay—or is it just an aversion to the task at hand?"

I hope in your classes the students aren't averse to the topic at hand! But yet, I find myself jumping to fun apps this all the time now that I have an iPhone (but never at work, of course!). I probably never would have in class, but I can see how easy it would be to use them instead of taking notes or listening to a lecture.

One faculty member completely bans laptops and other devices, including for taking notes. His perspective is that technology makes it so easy to provide materials (notes, outlines, lecture podcasts, etc.) to students before or after class that during class, they should being paying attention to him and to other students. Even taking notes is multitasking.

(If you are a USM instructor, contact CTEL for help providing materials via BlackBoard, podcasting, and other technology options.)