Teaching and Learning in a Digital Age

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Teaching and Learning in a Digital Age
A growing body of research is emerging to show the detrimental impacts of the saturation of cell phones, text messaging, and laptops on people's attention spans, learning abilities, social and communications skills, and overall mental health. These findings also have relevance for our thinking about broader social issues such as social cohesion, class and racial polarization, and social movements. The following links provide resources for critical reflection on the uses of technology and its effects in our classrooms. They also address some of the larger societal concerns and issues that emerge as new generations of young people are increasingly socialized around digital technology.

"Technology often causes us to lose our senses when it comes to norms of polite behavior and, as a result,perfectly nice people become unbelievably rude and insulting." --Dr. Cara Finnegan

More and more people are taking occasional "digital detox" breaks to improve their concentration, performance, relationships, and overall health.

The following links provide resources for critical reflection on the uses of technology and its effects on learning, attention, productivity, and mental health.

Selected References


Learning, Memory, and Productivity


Mental Health, Social Well-Being and Anxiety

  • Death of the private self: how fifteen years of Facebook changed the human condition The Guardian January 31, 2019. "Facebook age marks a break from traditional human behaviour in key aspect. In the past, we could regularly take a break from acting, and revert to some sense of our private, authentic selves. Now, as we constantly prod at our smartphones and feel the pull of their addictive apps, when does the performing ever stop?"

Resources for Addressing Perfectionism (UNSW Sydney)
More College Students Seem to Be Majoring in Perfectionism New York Times
Resources to address challenges of college perfectionism and psychological health


Lessons on digital technology, privacy, corporate concentration, and social conflicts:


Professional Considerations and Interventions
AAUP’s Education Not Privatization toolkit from our One Faculty, One Resistance site



DRAFT SYLLABUS CONTENT

Mainstream communications including communication fostered at universities send few signals to students about the need to be more critical and selective in how one uses technology. We can play important roles as teachers to invite students to think critically about how technology impacts both their own practices and learning abilities and how it shapes broader social trends and problems. Introducing limitations in your classroom is a way to model such practices for students and it can encourage them to become more effective learners and sociologists. We should note that many students will protest such restrictions, since they are rarely required to disconnect from their devices. But holding firm to technology limitations can teach important lessons and life skills that many students in your classroom will (silently) appreciate.

Technology Policies*Drawing from research on the detrimental impacts of technology on education and learning, I have adopted the following technology policies:No assignments will be accepted via e-mail, and my preferred method of communication is face to face or by office phone. Please use opportunities after class or in office hours to discuss your work in the course. Do not use laptops or text messaging devices in class, and silence your cell phones and place them out of your sight.

The Problem of Digital Technology and Divided Attention--In recent years the saturation of cell phones, text messaging, and laptops, combined with the broad availability of wireless in classrooms, has produced something called the problem of divided attention. A March 25, 2008 article in the New York Timessummarized recent studies of productivity in business settings. Researchers found that after responding to email or text messages, it took people more than 15 minutes to re-focus on the "serious mental tasks" they had been performing before the interruption. Other research has shown that when people attempt to perform two tasks at once (e.g., following what's happening in class while checking text messages), the brain literally cannot do it. The brain has got to give up on one of the tasks in order to effectively accomplish the other. Hidden behind all the hype about multi-tasking, then, is this sad truth: "it makes you slower and dumber." For this reason alone you should seek to avoid the problem of divided attention when you are in class. But there's another reason, too: technology often causes us to lose our senses when it comes to norms of polite behavior and, as a result, "perfectly nice people become unbelievably rude and insulting." For both these reasons, then, turn off your cell phones or set them on silent mode when you come to class, and refrain from using laptops and any other electronic devices during class. *
Source: Dr. Cara Finnegan. (See also work by Sherry Turkle- Reclaiming Conversation in a Digital Age)