The Screeching Condor

Multi-failing, not Multitasking

30 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment

by jdowns79 in Uncategorized

After watching the videos from the PBS series, “Growing Up Digital,” I was most struck by the notion of over-confident multitaskers.  I am very interested in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and a lot of the research suggests that people with ADHD think that they are masters of multitasking.   In reality, they actually end up getting nothing accomplished:  They only end up with half-finished projects.  I couldn’t help but see some very strong parallels between technology-engrossed students, and people who suffer from ADHD.  That being said, I want to share some quotes from the videos that really stuck with me.  The first one is a quote from the female narrator.  “At some point, does the increase in use of technology create diminishing returns?”  Her question was clearly answered in a later video by a professor, running tests on a group of multitaskers.  He said, “It turns out, multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking.  They get distracted constantly.  Their memory is very disorganized.  Recent work we’ve done, suggests they’re worse at analytic reasoning.  We worry that it may be creating people who are unable to think well and clearly.”

In the first video, a professor said that he allows laptops in the classroom while he lectures.  He then said that when he gave a midterm, all of the students failed it.  He said that if they had been paying attention, they would have easily passed it.  This is another example of over-confident multitaskers biting off more than they can chew. Unless a student walks up to me with a university report showing that they underwent testing in a research study and were able to multitask effectively and efficiently, then I just won’t allow for it to happen.  As an adult, I know my limits.  I know how far I can spread my attention before I end up doing everything half-assed.  I don’t think kids know their limits yet.

So, now that we know that multitasking has negative effects on organization, memory, and analytic reasoning, how can we, as educators with a passion for instilling meaningful knowledge in our students, knowingly sit back an allow kids to “multitask” during a lecture?  How can we as parents, sit back and allow our kids to “multitask” while they do their homework?  (I use quotation marks because if you aren’t actually good at successfully completing multiple tasks at the same time, you aren’t really multitasking in the sense that we think of multitasking, are you?  It’s more like you’re juggling.  Badly.)