Skoolz Out!

I have just finished reading a very interesting article by Dr Michael Nagel on the impact technology is having on the brain and our behaviour. If you think back 5 years ago, how much has technology changed, and how much of an impact has this had on your life? With the advent of such technology such as the iphone, you can now be checking emails, twittering, checking a website, updating your blog, posting a photo to the net and accepting telephone calls at any moment of the day – and sometimes all at the same time!

Ponder for a moment what this means for the students of today. In my day (gee, I am officially old!), I would have the music going and usually be distracted by the electric guitar calling my name in the corner of the room as I tried to study. Today, it would not be uncommon for a regular homework session to include iTunes pumping through the speakers or their iPod, texting on the mobile, twittering, updating their MySPace or Facebook pages while they chat on MSN or play an online MMORPG such as Runescape. PHEW! Is there any wonder that maybe nothing gets done at all.

Surely there must be some impact all of this technology is having on our brains and behaviours as even mere males become more competent at multi-tasking their technological devices.

ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) & ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

While they have been diagnosed as some sort of behavioural disorder since the 1970s, there is no doubt there has been an increase in the number of children with these disorders as they became more widely understood and accepted. While inheriting these disorders is present in some cases, there has been a link associated with the person’s environment. The constant changing of focus and concentration as we shuffle through such a wide variety of technologies being used for communication must be impacting on the brain’s function and our ability to focus for sustained periods. If so, this could mean some massive changes in the social and emotional behaviours of our children.

Here & Now

Today, we expect things to happen instantly. We wait for immediate responses to text messages on our phones and through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and MSN. When we are not replied to immediately, or we are unable to make contact, we become impatient and even agitated. How is this change in our expectations impacting upon our behaviour? Students expect their questions to be answered immediately, if not by the teacher then usually the first hit that Google delivers. Sit in any discussion with teachers and at some point the topic about of how children of today are not as resilient and persistent as in previous generations, and how do we combat this, will normally be raised.

Ramifications for the classroom.

So what does all of this mean for the everyday teacher? These points have reminded me that we need to explicitly expose students to the enormous wealth of information on the Internet, but also teach how to be critical and intelligent consumers of it.

We need to consistently provide learning opportunities that promote the development of basic skills such as;

• Collaboration – the ability to work in teams, discuss, justify, explore, share knowledge and understandings. These skills become even more important when using new technology. Each student sitting at a computer working individually and silently is not always best practice. Providing opportunities for both styles when utilising technology is vital.

• Search Engines – how to use a search engine properly, its advanced features, how to analyse and interpret the search results. While this may have been a big focus when the Internet exploded in education, we cannot assume that the students are equipped with these skills, even though they are confident users of the technology. To most people reading this blog, you are probably already doing a number of these things in your classrooms, but what about the large number of our colleagues who are not?

• Time management – asking students to focus on one activity for sustained periods when they may not be capable of doing this. Teachers still using the same old techniques are probably finding many of their students are becoming disengaged. The usual barrier for teachers is to resort to – what is wrong with them? They cannot listen, concentrate, etc. These behaviours are all by-products of a society that is now demanding that everything is done instantly, visually and interactively. These skills need to be taught.

• Downtime – teaching students and providing time for the brain to ‘log off’ or ‘refresh’ is often seen as wasted time. The quality of our work will ultimately disintegrate the longer we try to remain focussed. As the pace of life continues to increase, can you say that you are effectively modeling this for your students? Every chance we get, we seem to be completing some form of administrative task. Where is our world heading as we continue to create more hardware and software that makes us so easily accessible 24/7?

Teachers should be aware and providing a healthy mix of a wide range of approaches, with an importance on social activities that require collaboration, discussion, justification. We need to explicitly teach these skills that we take for granted, and that our students possibly have not developed as efficiently as we would expect, as we work through our lesson focus. It is just another reminder that the technology is a tool, or medium for the learning, not the sole focus.