Many people see multitasking as a way of increasing efficiency in our daily life. However, multitasking is a thread of degrading performance. This is true specially in the classroom environment. In simple words, when multitasking we are executing two or more tasks that are not equally important: these are the primary and the secondary tasks.
Let's suppose a common example in the classroom environment:
- Primary Task: Main task a person is concentrating on: paying attention on a lecture and taking notes
- Secondary Task: Distraction task which has to be executed in parallel: using the cellphone to text
Perfect execution of two parallel tasks is possible but requires
learning and depends on several context factors. Usually, automatic tasks that require no attention can have a good time sharing with more difficult tasks. However, being in a classroom involves controlled tasks that require attention. These type of tasks are considered hard and require more attention and cognitive resources. Learning a new subject , taking notes, paying attention to a conversation and texting back are controlled tasks take can not be automate even with practice.
In fact, these tasks are considered in nature and therefore, they are harder to execute in parallel than more distinct ones. When tasks are similar, they compete for same abstract cognitive resources. As humans, we have a fixed pool of available resources. In this way, conflicts between tasks occur when more resources are
concurrently requested than available. We do not allocate resources evenly between tasks. If a conversation is more interesting than a task, more cognitive resources will be allocated to this task. In this way, a perfect time-sharing is not possible.
Additionally, most dual tasks require enormous “mental effort”. For instance, if you are trying to learn a difficult subject in class but at the same time you are engaged in a controversial subject with your friends using your cellphone, both tasks require enormous resources. If tasks requirements are greater than your available resources, you start experiencing mental workload. Yes! You can get more exhausted in class by using your cellphone!
What are your thoughts on using cellphones in the classroom vs attention and multitasking?
I believe it is not same for everyone as humans are diverse. For example for individuals with ADHD symptoms, just having one simple task in a certain time would be as much boring that they cannot be motivated enough to focus and complete it; however when they make themselves busy with several tasks in a limited time they might be able to engage in it more focused and motivated.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. I am not against multitasking. I am not good at it myself. But, I agree that it does reduce your attention span somewhat. The student might still be able to take notes and do another task but there won't be any learning. I am more worried about the learning part. It is necessary to understand something new being taught, digest the knowledge, learn it and question the learning at the same time. It doesn't work for me. I have to concentrate on a certain thing at a time. Some people can argue that they can go through the notes later on. Again, it doesn't work for me. It might work for other people. So, it is a subjective topic I think.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these thoughts. I believe that multitasking is possible when the work is repetitive and "brainless". For example, at my previous job I often had assignments that were super monotonous. Large spreadsheets that needed entries, formatting, review, etc.For these brain-dead exercises I would always listen to a podcast to help me through the miserable clerical work. My brain would be multi tasking on two separate, low-bandwidth, tasks and the outcomes were the same as if I had focused all my attention on the primary task. On other tasks, tasks which required a higher degree of thought, I would have to turn everything off and create an environment of focus. These are tasks where I was tinkering, learning, and moving the work forward. For these tasks laser focus was an absolute necessity. So, in summary, I would have to say that it depends. If the task doesn't require a lot of thought, who cares if kids have phones to help them deaden the pain of the task. If the task is supposed to be highly mentally engaging, they should have the discipline, or the teacher should help them have the discipline to control their environment so they can focus. Again, thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the blog. I think it depend on the tasks and also the personalities and many other factors There are some easy activities that could be easily combined. For example, driving while listening to a lecture
ReplyDeleteSome people like to listen to music or songs while they are working and they find it increase productivity. If you are speaking specifically on using mobile phone in classroom then I might agree with you that it part distract of the attention. But I think many student do this sometimes since the class is boring. Even if they do not have phone they would not give the class attention. In other issue that I think about is that if the student have certain capacity for attention if the teacher could not attract all this attention capacity student will try to utilize it in something in some ways in other things. Thanks for the post.
I think the points you made are really good. My question to you is checking our phones decreasing our demand/resources (so it is a break from a primary task)? At that point are we just switching back and forth between primary tasks ? I typically look at my phone when I need a quick mental break.
ReplyDeleteI myself feel that multitasking is not a negative thing. Learners should be able to determine whether the material they are studying in class is complex to the point where they shouldn't multitask. I just do not want people to think that if a learner is on their phone or laptop during class they are goofing off or not paying attention. I actually have a learning disability and in order for me to concentration, I often have to be busy with more than one task in order not to be distracted by other factors. The tasks I focus on are typically the homework assignment associated with what I am learning or looking at material associated with the class I am in at that moment. Yes, some students are not paying attention and may be carrying on a conversation with someone via text but often that assumption is made when it may not be the case.
ReplyDelete-- Angelica Stovall