Friday, December 3, 2010

Multitasking or Task-Switching?


A previous post on this blog referenced a great NYT article about attention, focus, and "multitasking" ("Ear plugs to Lasers")

Since reading that article, I feel like I keep seeing good articles about the "myth of multitasking" (this is a good reference list, I think). The general idea of "multitasking" is so pervasive and impacts all our students (and us!) so it might make for a great discussion topic whenever you tackle selective attention? When would it "fit" in your classes?


posted by Rob McEntarffer

3 comments:

Mrs. Welle said...

For the past couple of years I have addressed this topic when we discuss selective attention during the Perception unit. I believe I also heard the author of "The Myth of Multitasking" (the book) on NPR at one time...

mkopale said...

We talk about it when we study the brain. We especially research and discuss the brain's limited ability to text/talk on the phone while driving.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the great responses! Its interesting to me how this is one of the concepts that really "spans chapters" - there are a bunch of great opportunities to talk about attention. That probably means that it would be a good choice as a topic for a free-response question. Hmm . . .