Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
via the Internet, students hardly need to visit the library anymore. With the capacity
to chat with friends and strangers about one's task, it may not necessarily take a
village to write a paper but it may well be the work of many hands. Sometimes, it
can be someone else's work altogether as reports of school plagiarism, both unin-
tentional and deliberate, rises in the digital age (Josephson Institute of Ethics, 2006;
Williams, 2007).
Similarly important to youth learning and educational practices is the prolifera-
tion of portable, affordable, and personal digital devices. While schools have a large
measure of control over the computers they provide, virtually every student owns at
minimum a cellphone with texting capabilities. Students can be seen accessing their
mobile devices before the school day begins, during classes and study halls, in the
few minutes between classes, during lunch, and immediately after school. 4 Most of
these students are conversing with friends or parents.
In the subsequent sections, we analyze the cognitive and socially based changes
in the youth of 2008 and 2009 as compared to the youth of 1992 or earlier as
discussed with us by our 40 educator participants.
Changes in Student Attention
A large number of our educator participants mention that their students' capacity
for attention is on the decline when compared to the earlier, pre-NDM generation of
students. In particular, they cite a rapid change shift to shorter attention spans and
greater distractibility over a relatively short period of time. 5 Many of the educators
we spoke with also find that their current students experience difficulty sitting and
listening for extended periods of time.
Part of this reported change reflects more awareness and diagnoses of attention-
related illnesses such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), shifts in pedagogical
approaches and understanding, and a rise in distractions overall. Several educators
also attribute students' shorter periods of focused attention in part to the rapid flow
of information and communication with NDM. A few further cite a greater impa-
tience and frustration with delayed gratification, suggesting that these may be a
response to the sense of immediacy with which students have become accustomed
to using new technologies. Moreover, students appear more “distracted by technol-
ogy,” observes a biology educator, with email, iTunes, cell phones, IM, television,
and video games.
As one history teacher puts it, students today “multitask like crazy,” and quite
a few educators also associate the decline in student attention with the practice
of multitasking with various media (digital and electronic) such as cell phones,
4 The more specific characteristics of this type of engagement depend to a large extent on school
access to the necessary networks and policies on the use of such devices during the school day.
5 One subject did specifically remark that students have long attention spans and are noticeable
for not having changed. This may be due in part to that particular school's environment of self-
selected, independent students, although many educators at the private schools in particular note
an increase of stronger students.
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