Narratives

Narrative 1: Distracting Gadgets and Attention Deficits in Schools

"Now that computers are a staple in schools around the country, perhaps the machines should come with a warning label for teachers: 'Beware: Students may no longer hear a word you say.'

Today 80 percent of public schools have high-speed Internet access in at least one classroom, according to Market Data Retrieval, an education research company. Among colleges, 69 percent have classroom Internet access and 70 percent have wireless networks. Students start tapping away behind laptop lids with no way for professors to know if they are taking notes or checking Hotmail.

'I've never been in a lecture where I haven't seen someone checking their e-mail when they were supposed to be doing stuff,' said Bill Walsh, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Instant messages, news tickers and games like solitaire beckon too.

Joe Huber, the technology coordinator for the public schools in Greenwood, Ind., said that teachers routinely complain about gadget-distraction among students. 'It is a huge problem with anyone who teaches with any kind of technology,' he said.

Even in rooms without computers or Internet access, students have other devices to draw their attention away from academics. Cellphones may be prohibited at many schools, but that doesn't stop students from putting them on vibrate and trading text messages under their desks. That is, when they aren't fiddling with their organizers or music players. Teachers have started to fight back. All agree that the best weapon against attention deficit is the same one that worked before the dawn of computers: strong teaching. But new strategies don't hurt, either. Some teachers have found, in fact, that the best defense against the distractions of technology is other technology. Here are five examples of teachers who are fighting fire with fire."

Counter-strategies adopted by teachers:

- use of (interactive) games in classroom

- threat to reboot without saving assignment

- classroom layout that allows teacher to watch students' laptops screens (MIT)

- remote controlled student computers, e.g. with option to "freeze" operations when teacher explains

From Lisa Guernsey, When Gadgets Get in the Way, N.Y. Times, Aug. 19, 2004, at 1.

Narrative 2: Reliability of New Intermediaries

Problems

- Reliability of user-generated content: how to dissect relevant from irrelevant information?

- Attention as a scarce resource: problem can be framed as attention shortage, rather than information overload; how to allocate one's attention efficiently? (Franck, Goldhaber)

- Digital amnesia/digital dark age: huge amounts of information are simply forgotten or cannot be read anymore after some time (Stewart Brand: âInformation lasts forever. Digital information lasts forever or for five years, whichever comes first.â)