Went to Greensboro for two and a half days for a technology conference last week. Learned some pretty cool stuff and got some free stuff, too. But really kept coming up against a couple of things I thought you guys might have opinions on.
First of all, they keep saying we need to engage these students. That they are using technology all the time, and they need to use more. That students are multi-tasking so much that they are doing like 26 hours of stuff in one day - seriously.
My problem with all of this is that students may very well be multi-tasking and doing all of this stuff, but is this allowing them to sit still for an extended period of time? I ask this, because to read a book - or even to listen to a book - you really need to be able to be still - and not distracted. I fear that these multitasking students are being trained to be entertained and drawn to shorter and shorter bits of information.
From TV shows with small bursts of entertainment divided by small bursts of commercials to music videos. It's amazing to me that they can sit down and watch a full length movie anymore. But then again - they are totally immersed in it if they go to the theater, so maybe movies still have a chance - lol
Anywho - the other thing about the conference was the abundance of laptops and the abundance of folks who thought it was not maddening to hear typing during a presentation. People who type during a presentation kill me. I can't even begin to imagine being the presenter.
What do you guys think?
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