While there has been no long-term study of the role of electronic
devices in society in general, and education in particular, recent research
suggests the constant use of technology can have an effect on the attention
span of students. Research done by both the Pew Research Center and Common
Sense Media found that teachers think constant use of digital devices makes it
more difficult for students to pay attention and focus on classroom tasks. This
has changed the way many instructors conduct their classes.
“I’m tap-dancing all over the place,” said Dave
Mendell, a fourth-grade teacher in Wallingford, PA, in a New York Times article.
“The more I stand in front of class, the easier it is to lose them.”
Larry Rosen, professor of psychology, California State
University, Dominguez Hills, weighed in on the subject in a column that appeared in eSchool News. Rosen studied
student test scores after they were told to answer text messages they might
receive during a video lecture. All the students got lower grades because waiting
for the text to arrive was a distraction. His research also found that students
who responded to the text immediately got even lower grades than those who
waited to respond.
“After the study, when asked why they did not respond
immediately, they told us that they were waiting for a time when the videotape
material seemed less important and not likely to be on the test,” Rosen wrote.
“Those students were using their metacognitive skills to decide when was a good
time to be distracted and when it was important to focus.”
Rosen went on to suggest teachers use “technology
breaks” as a possible way to get students to focus. A technology break allows students to check
messages between extended periods of time focused on classroom work.
“The trick is to gradually lengthen the time between
tech breaks to teach students how to focus for longer periods of time without
being distracted,” Rosen wrote. “I have teachers using this in classrooms,
parents using it at the dinner table or a restaurant, and bosses using tech
breaks during meetings with great success.”
