Category: Issues and Trends in Educational Computing.

Project on display at: http://prezi.com/rzpvrt90feyj/digital-citizenship/

Teachers often complain that their students are distracted by technology that finds its way to school in pockets and backpacks. From smart phones to tablets and portable games, students are always on – but not always on task, it seems to some. The Kaiser Family Foundation studied Millennials and found they were consuming 10.75 hours of media in little over 7.5 hours daily (slide 7) in a remarkable feat of multitasking.

Students are confident in their abilities to handle more than one thing at the same time. In Wallis’ (2006) story in Time magazine, she relates an oft-heard battle between parents and children about their study habits, from the teen’s perspective: “My parents always tell me I can’t do homework while listening to music, but they don’t understand that it helps me concentrate” (para. 5).  Anna Liotta, a business consultant specializing in cross-generational workplace relations, notes that “Millennial feels strongly that they need to—and are effective at—using multiple modes of communication simultaneously” (para. 1).

Multitasking is a Myth

In The New Atlantis, Christine Rosen (2008) discusses how multitasking is not only a false concept as far as human brains are concerned (2008), and calls multitasking “a poor long-term strategy for learning” (107). According to Rosen, some neurologists believe the brain can be trained to multitask for some purposes, while others caution the side effects of adrenaline and stress hormones while this rapid attention-switching is occurring. 

Research also indicates it actually takes us longer to complete tasks that require similar types of cognitive processing, not less, when we are forced to multitask (Tugend, 2008; Wallis, 2006). Edward M. Hallowell, psychologist, comments, “It gives the illusion that we’re simultaneously tasking, but we’re really not. It’s like playing tennis with three balls” (in Tugend). What your students say about listening to music, however, may be true as it uses different cognitive processing skills than many other tasks (Tugend).

Distraction and Focus

Is all this distraction for naught? While we may be quick to dismiss distraction as the bane of success, a longitudinal study that started in the 1960s may indicate otherwise. Many may be familiar with “The Marshmallow Study,” by Walter Mischel:

And just how did these children manage to avoid the temptation? Peter Bregman (2009) at Harvard Business Review argues that it wasn’t just willpower, it was technique, and that technique was deliberate distraction:

So what’s the secret of the ones who held out? Did they have more willpower? Better discipline? Maybe they didn’t like candy as much? Perhaps they were afraid of authority?

It turns out it was none of these things. It was a technique. The same technique I used with Isabelle.

Distraction.

Rather than focusing on not eating the marshmallow, they covered their eyes, sat under the table, or sang a song. They didn’t resist the urge. They simply avoided it.

….

Distraction is, in fact, the same thing as focus. To distract yourself from X you need to focus on Y.

Bregman (2012) writes later that this resistance to impulse “determines our success in learning a new behavior or changing an old habit. It’s probably the single most important skill for our growth and development” (para. 6).

Two sides of the same coin, distraction and focus in proper contexts can lead to better outcomes in our personal and professional lives. Bregman, recommends meditation for better focus, as do others in the productivity world.

Teaching Students Mindfulness and Focus

Dr. Hallowell believes that we can change our habits and return to (or learn) how to control the amount of stimulus and interruption we are receiving (Tugend, 2008). How can we go about teaching students mindfulness, with intentional focus and distraction? One way is through guided practice. Pam (last name unknown) gives a few ideas at her blog, The Mindful Classroom, including teaching mindfulness through breathing techniques even in kindergarden. 

For older students (and overwhelmed teachers and grad students!), consider teaching the Pomodoro Technique. This technique breaks work into blocks of 25 minutes with breaks of 5. After 4 sessions (or “pomodoros”), a longer break is given. Times can be adjusted for particular work situations, but the idea is to push out distractions and focus on a single task for a set amount of time. The reward is 5 minutes to do whatever you want. And of course, once your work is done, that time is yours as well. Plugins for major web browsers that will block “fun” sites and support the Pomodoro Technique are widely available. In addition, phone apps are available for users to track their work on their smartphones. 

TL;DR

While teachers and parents are concerned about digital distractions in the lives of their students and children, distraction plays an important role in goal achievement, as does focus. Multitasking, however, is not a realistic expectation of our brains, as we can’t actually focus on more than one idea at a time, but rather make rapid shifts from one area of focus to another. Distraction and focus are two parts of the puzzle that lead to success by learning which areas of attention to avoid and which to focus on. 

As teachers, we can work with all ages to help students develop mindfulness and focus through breathing exercises or other focus training techniques such as the Pomodoro Technique.

References:

Bregman, P. (2009, June 10). How to teach yourself restraint. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2009/06/how-to-teach-yourself-restrain.html

Bregman, P. (2012, October 12). If you’re too busy to meditate, read this. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2012/10/if-youre-too-busy-to-meditate.html

Liotta, A. (2012, November 12). Generational Savvy Solutions. Resultance Incorporated. Retrieved from http://resultance.com/multi-tasking-rude-or-efficient/

Rosen, C., (2008). The Myth of Multitasking. The New Atlantis, 20. 105-110. Retrieved from http://faculty.winthrop.edu/hinera/CRTW-Spring_2011/TheMythofMultitasking_Rosen.pdf

Tugend, A., (2008, October 24). Multitasking can make you lose… um… focus. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/business/yourmoney/25shortcuts.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Wallis, C. (2006, March 27). The Multitasking Generation. Time. Retrieved from http://www.balcells.com/blog/images/articles/entry558_2465_multitasking.pdf

I’m quite surprised there haven’t been any comments here yet on open source, so let me get it started with a few ideas. Open Source has its roots in academics and has the idea that, if we all have access to the source, we can fix the problems together and progress more quickly than if we had to rely on one person or a small group to make updates and changes. This open concept is related to a lot of other areas, and is used commonly in our day-to-day lives.

Here are some random but connected tidbits related to open source and associated movements as they relate to technology and our lives as teachers:

• Some of the websites and platforms we rely on every day are, or are based in, open source. Wikipedia, WordPress and others all rely on open-source development and are often protected by the GNU General Public License. Another name for this is sometimes called “Copyleft,” a response to copyright.
• A lot of basic websites and servers run on open source. These include the Apache web server, PHP for dynamic-content websites and MySQL for databases in which website information is stored are also open.
• If you need a free photo that you can use on your website, look at Flickr.com’s advanced search functions and search with the creative commons for copyleft photos that simply require attribution to use.
• Apple’s OS X operating system is based on Unix (well, it is Unix), which is synonymous with open platforms, although Apple’s version is certainly proprietary.
• Android is open source.
• The Internet wouldn’t exist without open standards.
• In this vein, some academics, particularly scientists it seems, are pushing for “Open Academia,” which doesn’t have anything to do with MOOCs, although it may sound like that at first. These academics are pushing for open access to research; that is, not behind the pay walls of big journals.

In sum, Open Source and its related cousins of openness have been and remain crucial to our growth and development as technological beings. But enough fawning. What do you all think?

Speaking directly to the situation of foreign language instructors in Korea and other nations, there is a dire need for even the most rudimentary training. Instructors who come are almost always untrained teachers with little or no experience teaching any subject or skill, let alone a language in a foreign language. Instructors rely on their own memories of their experiences learning foreign languages, if they did at all, and cobble together ideas of best-practice from the under-qualified instructors in their immediate environment. For teachers who do spend time and money pursing training, trainers are often peers with little experience or training, although some specialists are available. This situation is evident in a visit to the national conference for English teachers here in Korea.

What needs to be done for the field? In many ways, there are problems with motivation and perceived need. For “teachers” and employers alike, there is not a perceived need to actually teach; it is enough to have a visible “native speaker” (as though these people were authorities on their own language and how to learn it, simply because they can communicate in it and may or may not have mastery) in the same room as the learner. To be fair, some teachers take their role seriously and pursue learning at every opportunity. These teachers may at some point work toward certification or higher education in the field, but for too many it is merely enough to get through the 12-month contract, get paid, and get out.

For those who wish to become competent but who are unable or uninterested in pursing official certification, there is little in terms of competent training resources available. Most of what is free is merely anecdotal how-tos by others in the same circumstances, that is, novices evaluating their own performance. A clear need is for easily accessible training for novices interested in developing their skills. Official sources often require time away from work, the classroom, and therefore a source of income, placing a barrier between  potential trainee and the training.

When it comes to teaching students, however, resources abound. Korea is interested in moving toward the highest forms of widely available technology for use in the classroom. While the universities are slower to adopt technologies such as interactive white boards (IWB), both public and private schools are quickly adopting IWBs, ebooks and other technologies in the interest of better education for students. The level of training that educators receive, however, on how to use and best implement these new technologies (and even more elementary- are they helpful?) is unclear.

The greatest technology, which is not widely available, is the technology of better pedagogy. Korean instruction is still largely stuck in a DI model, which some claim is a holdover of Confucian authoritarian structures. If this is true, there are core cultural barriers to change. Without cultural changes, or a shift in mindset, the greatest technological advances may be stymied by lagging pedagogy.

In speaking with a professional Korean elementary school teacher, who is currently in a model school for “smart education,” I learned that in her case, she has persued training in technologies as part of her graduate studies, and there are frequent seminars avilable to her throughout the semester. She explain that a lot of the teachers are pursing training of their own accord. From what she told me, there isn’t much in relating the technologies to pedagogy; rather teachers are expeced to know the pedagogies already and find ways to use the techologies within their existing schema.

What this indicates to me is that depending on how abreast of pedagogical shifts teachers are, there may or may not be understanding of current pedagogies and how to best utilize technologies for educational outcomes. This is mere conjecture, however, and does not speak to anything from data. It would be a very interesting area of study.

1. Which aspects of WEB safety are of most concern in your teaching institution?

While I assumed that phishing and online bullying would be concerns for my students, when asked, they had different answers. One cited loss of control over who sees their personal information on social networking websites. Another was worried about viruses and only viruses, while a third responded that he was concerned about hackers breaking into unsecured servers and accessing their personal data. This third student cited several instances over the past few years in which hackers breached security measures and stole the personal information of two thirds of the population (35 of 50 million people). Because until recently, Korean law demanded real-name identification to register for a website, which included the use of citizens’ personal identity numbers, this was a massive breach. This student was concerned that his identity could then be used to access websites that he himself would not use, and gave adult video websites as an example.

The students in school today are referred to as “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001), Selwyn (2009) notes that proponents of this idea may be short-selling the dangers this always-on generation faces, both to their person and their intellect. In addition to the physical, social and sexual harm that may come from unfettered, unguided access to the Internet, students may also suffer from a “dumbing-down” that results from how they interact with information (Selwyn). To this end, determining the quality of information found online is a skill students may not have unless they have previously learnt it. Selwyn goes on to note that students, far from being digital natives, constructing their reality in digital form, are more passive consumers of entertainment rather than active in the creation of content. All of these play into the issues students bring with them in their access to information on the Internet that teachers can assist with.

2. How do teachers better effect positive change in students who routinely access knowledge and fact through the use of computer and when conveying information?

Keeping in mind the concerns of their students, it is important for teachers to evaluate the technology they require their students to use. For my situation, ensuring that the terms of service and privacy structures of the website, service or software do not violate the rights of their students to personal privacy and safety. Whereas my students are ESL/EFL students and often struggle with simple registration processes in the use of online technology, they cannot be expected to read, let alone understand the Terms of Service they agree to when they register. Additionally, if they are required to participate in class via this medium, then the onus is even more heavily on the teacher or administration to ensure their students are protected; if the online work is a required part of the students’ grades, the power in the relationship is entirely in the hands of the teachers and thus their responsibility to manage ethically.

Part of effecting the change is to help students learn how to be safe, smart digital citizens. We as teachers need to be cautious to scaffold appropriately and not assume students are able to do things that they have not yet learned to do. Online and blended learning software, such as the Moodle LMS, lean heavily on constructivist pedagogy (Foster, 2012), but if the generation is accustomed to consumption over production, there may be a gap between how students expect to use the Internet and how their teachers envision their engagement (Selwyn, 2009). This includes how to protect their own safety and privacy when engaging with the Internet and online services. Working with students to raise their knowledge and awareness of safety and processes online is a necessary responsibility for teachers at all levels. Additionally, it is important to teach students the same critical thinking required to establish the authority of a source, be it on the internet or in an analogue or other format.

Teaching these kinds of personal and social responsibility will better prepare students to be safe, healthy and smart digital citizens of the future, native or otherwise.

3. What is a useful method that could improve the handling of WEB safety or the values (ala text readings) in your profession and in your school?

My school has, along with others across the country, jumped on the blended learning wagon. While I am not privy to every discussion and decision, it does not appear that much attention has been given to any of the student needs listed above. Rather, it appears that the decision to engage in blended learning has been more for the reputation of the school than for the educational benefit of the students.

To improve, there are many things that could be done. First, a new course in digital citizenry should be developed. It doesn’t need to be for credit or last a full semester, but an introductory semester covering online research, responsibility, safety and other concerns could greatly benefit the students. Secondly, greater concern with finding technology that does not present barriers to student learning with technical glitches abounding. Anecdotally, I probably spend as much time managing and troubleshooting technology with my students as I do assisting them with the content of the course.

Finally, it may be of greatest benefit for the school to find an in-house solution for their educational needs, rather than relying on outside providers. These outside providers do not have our students’ best educational interests at heart, and do not create products (and they are for sale, and as such are truly products) that specifically meet the needs of our students at our school. Rather, this product is intended to be as broadly applicable as possible to obtain the greatest return on investment possible.

As a teacher, I need to ensure my students have true understanding of how to use the technology requirements of the course. As I am working in a second language with them (either theirs, or mine when I engage them in their L1), many details get lost in translation. I have set them up for on-demand help from me via phone chats, which they use regularly. Having patience when things go wrong, providing extra help when the technology fails, and being prepared to extend deadlines as per the cultural norms all play into success with the students. I’m honestly not sure if the language or the technology is a greater hurdle for my students; I wish neither were the case.

References

Foster, H. (2 February 2012). Moodle Documentation: Philosophy. Retrieved from http://docs.moodle.org/23/en/Philosophy

McCurry, J. (2010, July 13). Internet addiction driving South Koreans into realms of fantasy. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/13/internet-addiction-south-korea

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Innovate: Online Journal of Online Education, 5(3). Retrieved from http://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol5_issue3/H._Sapiens_Digital-__From_Digital_Immigrants_and_Digital_Natives_to_Digital_Wisdom.pdf

Selwyn, N. (2009). The digital native – myth and reality. Aslib Proceedings, 61(4), 364–379. doi:10.1108/00012530910973776

Yonhap News Service (2012, July 22). High-speed wireless internet distribution tops 100%. The Korea Times. Retrieved from http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2012/07/123_115610.html

Question: What types of advancing technology provisions are available in your field to better enable you to enhance learning opportunity for your students? Your task associated with this topic is to review the the contents of this topic, look into the links included in the text of the contents and provide a reply to the two question items that appear at the end of the article itself. The challenge is to update contents, augment it with latest in your area or field of specialization, and generally refresh it for use in areas that would be familiar to you and provide a basis from which you can explore other possibilities for the use of learning technology in your field. What are the learning features and information sources needed to enhance learning in your field?

Speaking directly to the situation of foreign language instructors in Korea and other nations, there is a dire need for even the most rudimentary training. Instructors who come are almost always untrained teachers with little or no experience teaching any subject or skill, let alone a language in a foreign language. Instructors rely on their own memories of their experiences learning foreign languages, if they did at all, and cobble together ideas of best-practice from the under-qualified instructors in their immediate environment. For teachers who do spend time and money pursing training, trainers are often peers with little experience or training, although some specialists are available. This situation is evident in a visit to the national conference for English teachers here in Korea.

What needs to be done for the field? In many ways, there are problems with motivation and perceived need. For “teachers” and employers alike, there is not a perceived need to actually teach; it is enough to have a visible “native speaker” (as though these people were authorities on their own language and how to learn it, simply because they can communicate in it and may or may not have mastery) in the same room as the learner. To be fair, some teachers take their role seriously and pursue learning at every opportunity. These teachers may at some point work toward certification or higher education in the field, but for too many it is merely enough to get through the 12-month contract, get paid, and get out.

For those who wish to become competent but who are unable or uninterested in pursing official certification, there is little in terms of competent training resources available. Most of what is free is merely anecdotal how-tos by others in the same circumstances, that is, novices evaluating their own performance. A clear need is for easily accessible training for novices interested in developing their skills. Official sources often require time away from work, the classroom, and therefore a source of income, placing a barrier between  potential trainee and the training.

When it comes to teaching students, however, resources abound. Korea is interested in moving toward the highest forms of widely available technology for use in the classroom. While the universities are slower to adopt technologies such as interactive white boards (IWB), both public and private schools are quickly adopting IWBs, ebooks and other technologies in the interest of better education for students. The level of training that educators receive, however, on how to use and best implement these new technologies (and even more elementary- are they helpful?) is unclear.

The greatest technology, which is not widely available, is the technology of better pedagogy. Korean instruction is still largely stuck in a DI model, which some claim is a holdover of Confucian authoritarian structures. If this is true, there are core cultural barriers to change. Without cultural changes, or a shift in mindset, the greatest technological advances may be stymied by lagging pedagogy.

Resources worth using later from the readings:

Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply &Questions to Ask UC Berkeley – Teaching Library Internet Workshops: A good primer on evaluating the authority of web pages and their content, including Internet-specific skills such as URL truncation

Internet Dectective: Wise up to the web – Good resource for students preparing for/new to college regarding Internet research and authoritative websites.