“If something on their desk or in their pocket dings, rings or vibrates — they will lose focus.”
“Students are doing so much in class, distraction and disruption isn’t really something I worry about.”
How should teachers — both K-12 and college — deal with the use of computers and phones by students in class?
On the one hand, those sleek little supercomputers promise to connect us to all human knowledge. On the other hand, they are also scientifically designed by some of the world’s top geniuses to feel as compelling as oxygen.
So where does that leave teachers? Should you ban these devices in the classroom? Let students go whole hog? Or is there a happy medium?
This seemingly simple topic ends up being what one professor and pedagogy expert calls “a Rorschach test for so much that’s going on in education.”
Recently, the California state teachers’ pension fund weighed in — as a large investor in Apple, the makers of the iPhone. In an open letter, along with another activist shareholder, they called on the company to study digital distraction among youth and to make it easier to limit young people’s use.
The letter cited a national survey that found two-thirds of K-12 teachers said the number of students who are negatively distracted by digital technologies in the classroom is growing. Of those teachers surveyed, 75 percent said students’ ability to focus on educational tasks has decreased. To read more from ANYA KAMENETZ, click here.