[Yr7-10it] A video about a 1-1 Apple laptop middle school in NYC

Sat Sep 5 17:21:39 EST 2009

There was a report kicking around about 6 months ago which concluded 
that multi-tasking while learning a concept for a first time inhibited 
the retention rate of the students. Therefore it is harder to learn a 
skill unless you are totally focused on the learning. However, 
multitasking while repeating a skill already learnt (and ingrained) did 
not inhibit the performance of the student.

Most adults know this instinctively, if we are trying to concentrate on 
something whether it is reading a paper or parking a car, the music goes 
off.

:)

Margaret

Geoff Moss wrote:
> Phil
>
> Your comment about listening to music with lyrics is true in many case 
> with students.  I tried it out as an experiment with students some 
> years ago.
>
> At first I played music that was popular with the class and I 
> observed, as did the students, that their workrate fell.  They 
> commented that they felt more comfortable in class and more relaxed, 
> but admitted listening to, and in some cases singing with, the lyrics 
> with songs they preferred.
>
> I then tried it with music of my era - the great era of the 60's and 
> 70's. This was distracting to the students because they didn't like my 
> taste in music.  I ca appreciate their views but their work rate did 
> not improve because they were trying to ignore the "oldies music".
>
> Then, we tried using background music from different generations.  As 
> background music, and at a low volume, the students were initially 
> distracted but soon adjusted and we found that their workrate 
> improved. Students commented that they tended to listen if they then 
> recognised the tunes, but not as much as when there were lyrics.
>
> Multi-tasking fails miserably when the students have access to the 
> internet, email or other distractions and I want them to participate 
> in a lesson's discussion.  Students listening to iPods and the like do 
> not participate as well in class.  We usually try this out at the 
> start of the year to get the students to appreciate how much of a 
> distraction they are.  They even find that note taking and making 
> summaries are less efficient and that they retain less information.  
> For these reasons I do not allow students to listen to their iPods, 
> etc when they are doing their SACs or during class discussion, and 
> generally ban them from class time use.
>
> I am yet to be convinced that most students are able to work and study 
> efficiently, let alone effectively, when distracted by music and the 
> many other distractions available to them.
>
> I do appreciate, however, that if the adjacent environment is noisy 
> and distracting that a more comfortable noise can be better than that 
> distracting noise.  Sometime students use music to break the external 
> distractions and then convince themselves that they can study 
> "better".  I can recall doing this when I was studying, but I tended 
> to use music that was not distracting, rather than popular music with 
> lyrics.
>
> There have been several recent articles supporting the idea of 
> multi-tasking is a myth, even for women.  However, I do not wish to 
> initiate an argument down that line.
>
> In the link that Roland referred to, the reference to multi-tasking 
> was, IMHO, mis-used.  It was used in the context that students may 
> visit other sites, groom themselves, visit the internet, communicate 
> with others, etc during the lesson.  This occurs in our classes even 
> without music or computers or the internet.  Students have always 
> "tuned out" at different stages during a lesson, particularly if they 
> find it boring.  They will distract themselves and others during the 
> lesson.
>
> It merely highlights the need for us to make lessons that much more 
> interesting and less tedious.  If we vary activities during a lesson 
> students will remain more focussed.  We can even allow some "down 
> time" for them.  This often occurs when we change activities for 
> instance.
>
> This is not multi-tasking per se.  It is merely varying the 
> activities.  We can allow students to control that if we have set 
> tasks which they have to complete during the lesson, which we know 
> will not occupy the full lesson. Our warning to them is that if they 
> do not get in done in class, it becomes homework.  Nothing changed there.
>
> Geoff Moss
> RMIT
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Phil Callil" 
> <P.Callil at xavier.vic.edu.au>
> To: <yr7-10it at edulists.com.au>
> Sent: Saturday, September 05, 2009 2:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [Yr7-10it] A video about a 1-1 Apple laptop middle school 
> in NYC
>
>
>> Thanks for this, Roland.
>>
>> There's no doubt that technology has helped to turn this school 
>> around. I'm especially interested in their teachers' ideas about 
>> multi tasking. Research is starting to show that effective 
>> multitasking is a myth - it just dissipates focus and concentration 
>> resulting in less effective use of time.  This has real implications 
>> for learning.  For example, listening to music with lyrics has been 
>> found to lessen learning time effectiveness.
>>
>> Personally I can't listen to music at all when I'm really trying to 
>> sustain concentration on something important  - but maybe that's a 
>> generation or personal thing.
>>
>> It would be interesting to hear others' thoughts on multitasking.
>>
>> Best wishes
>>
>> Phil
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Phil Callil
>> Faculty Head IT
>> Xavier College
>> 9855-4163
>> www.xavier.vic.edu.au
>>
>> Vice President VITTA
>> www.vitta.org.au/
>>
>> iChat: pcallil at mac.com   Skype: pcallil000
>>>>> Roland Gesthuizen <rgesthuizen at gmail.com> 09/05/09 1:07 PM >>>
>> Interesting video link posted by Caroline Meeks, an IAEP project 
>> contributor
>> for Sugar, the operating system used on the OLPC computers.
>>
>> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/learning/schools/how-google-saved-a-school.html?play 
>>
>> Towards the middle of the clip is an interview with the administrator 
>> who
>> can observe the students on their Apple laptops. Its also an interesting
>> discussion about multi-tasking.
>>
>> Regards Roland
>>
>> -- 
>> Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
>> http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au
>>
>> "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can 
>> change
>> the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
>> </rgesthuizen at gmail.com>
>>
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-- 
Margaret Lawson

Konstant Kaos Designs

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