High School Hustle: Will digital distractions derail finals?
Finals will begin in many New York City high schools next week, and I already have a vision of what "studying,'' will look like in my household.
Banish forever any image of notebooks, highlighters, textbooks, index cards and teenagers hunched over a desk.
Instead, picture headphones or ear buds and dozens of open windows – the digital kind – with sites ranging from Facebook to i-Chat, spark notes, Twitter, Hulu or even Netflix. One hand will undoubtedly hold a cell phone with multiple text messages coming in and out.
As a parent, you may be tempted to shout: "Turn it off! You have finals! Study!"
It's most likely a losing battle; in their minds, they are studying – and to some extent, they are. How much is being retained is subject to debate.
"Attending to multiple streams of information and entertainment while studying, doing homework, or even sitting in class has become common behavior among young people—so common that many of them rarely write a paper or complete a problem set any other way,'' author Annie Murphy Paul wrote in a recent story for The Hechinger Report, where I'm the editor.
Paul's fascinating piece took a close look at ways young people multitask while learning, and notes the fallout: They remember less and learn less, according to new research. Some additional research shows that multitasking while studying and in class can lead to lower grades
By 2010, before dozens of new sites and digital distractions had emerged, almost a third of 8-to 18-year-olds reported they were also watching TV, texting listening to music or using some other medium when doing homework, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found.
So how can they possibly be concentrating on topics like chemistry, physics and U.S. history? I posed the question to my 15-year-old recently, but he didn't answer. Of course, he had a headset on and a computer open with multiple windows. This isn't the first time I've been concerned; I've watched the digital distractions multiply since my kids first got Facebook pages in junior high. They laugh when I tell them I grew up without cellphones and that my parents installed a second telephone line named for our family dog so my brother and sister and I could share our own land line.
I'm not so sure it wasn't easier to focus. I remember locking myself in my room before the biology Regents for hours with review books and index cards. For hours, it was nothing but photosynthesis, photographs of frog parts, mutations and the life of a cell. So simple.
As finals approach, Insideschools.org would love to hear more from parents, teens, teachers and others about how high schoolers are managing to study for finals with so many digital distractions. Do all these tools help, or hurt? Does all the digital access to friends, classmates and the Internet make it easier to study more efficiently? Does anyone turn off technology and simply read, use highlighters and review class notebooks anymore?
Finals will begin in many New York City high schools next week, and I already have a vision of what “studying,’’ will look like in my household.
Banish forever any image of notebooks, highlighters, textbooks, index cards and teenagers hunched over a desk.
Instead, picture headphones or ear buds and dozens of open windows – the digital kind – with sites ranging from Facebook to i-Chat, spark notes, Twitter, Hulu or even Netflix. One hand will undoubtedly hold a cell phone with multiple text messages coming in and out.
As a parent, you may be tempted to shout: “Turn it off! You have finals! Study!”
It’s most likely a losing battle; in their minds, they are studying – and to some extent, they are. How much is being retained is subject to debate.
“Attending to multiple streams of information and entertainment while studying, doing homework, or even sitting in class has become common behavior among young people—so common that many of them rarely write a paper or complete a problem set any other way,’’ author Annie Murphy Paul wrote in a recent story for The Hechinger Report, where I’m the editor.
Paul’s fascinating piece took a close look at ways young people multitask while learning, and notes the fallout: They remember less and learn less, according to new research. Some additional research shows that multitasking while studying and in class can lead to lower grades
By 2010, before dozens of new sites and digital distractions had emerged, almost a third of 8-to 18-year-olds reported they were also watching TV, texting listening to music or using some other medium when doing homework, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found.
So how can they possibly be concentrating on topics like chemistry, physics and U.S. history? I posed the question to my 15-year-old recently, but he didn’t answer. Of course, he had a headset on and a computer open with multiple windows. This isn’t the first time I’ve been concerned; I’ve watched the digital distractions multiply since my kids first got Facebook pages in junior high. They laugh when I tell them I grew up without cellphones and that my parents installed a second telephone line named for our family dog so my brother and sister and I could share our own land line.
I’m not so sure it wasn’t easier to focus. I remember locking myself in my room before the biology Regents for hours with review books and index cards. For hours, it was nothing but photosynthesis, photographs of frog parts, mutations and the life of a cell. So simple.
As finals approach, Insideschools.org would love to hear more from parents, teens, teachers and others about how high schoolers are managing to study for finals with so many digital distractions. Do all these tools help, or hurt? Does all the digital access to friends, classmates and the Internet make it easier to study more efficiently? Does anyone turn off technology and simply read, use highlighters and review class notebooks anymore?
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
Please Post Comments