Ironically, I was in the midst of writing a strategic planning document when an email from my weekly Circuits email arrived from the New York Times, alerting to a must-read article about, well, keeping yourself focused on work and not getting distracted. So of course I put down the document and read it!
Recently I stumbled upon Marc Prensky’s concept of the Digital Immigrant.
I finally understood the power of generation gaps when I caught myself
frowning on some of the behaviors that mark “Digital Natives,”
especially extreme multi-tasking. After all, I was raised to believe
that when you do your homework, the TV, radio, and everything else
distracting are off. As a consequence, perhaps I am especially vulnerable to distraction now that I operate in an the infinitely-networked world.
When kids are listening to music and IM’ing their friends while
writing term papers, are they also learning the meta-skill of
concentration under distraction? Is the pedagogical question of this
century not how to prevent ADD but rather cope with it — all of us?
And why the hell am I writing this right now?
Post a Comment