Travis Bradberry and John Warner both bring up salient points about the use of technology. Especially Bradberry who presents research to aid his points. Bradberry shines a light on why multi-tasking is actually negative both cognitively and productively while Warner hones in on technology taking people or specifically his own students out of the moment.
I can personally jive pretty well with Warner’s sentiments of staying in the moment, especially in class. I feel this way more now when I go to an event like a concert or sporting event. In class, I used to feel this way but ever since I got involved in sports media I have entered a world where reporting is constant and my preparation for the next event is constant as well. Leaving me to be ready to email back and forth or play with ideas with directors and fellow commentators. I can’t say that it has left me out of the loop for any in-class conversations. I tend to naturally be inquisitive and actively listen but when I have had professors similar to Warner I have respected their no technology clause. I will note that sometimes it has actually left me behind in the world of sports media, but such is the industry I suppose. Even still I have yet to feel that answering a quick email or an important text that was work-related and not personal, hurt my academic understanding. This is also a sign of multi-tasking that is brought up in the article written by Bradberry.
Bradberry focuses on the science that supports the fact that multi-tasking is a myth. It simply does not work. Whether it damages the brain is another point at hand though. Even still I found that during the reading I wanted him to define what multi-tasking meant. Does it include reading and listening to music? Or having a drink while you read or write? It seemed like he meant specifically multi-tasking with electronics but I am not sure that is what the studies he used as sources also exemplified as their own definitions. Regardless I do agree that if you are in a situation like a work meeting, where the information requires constant active listening, then it would be nearly impossible to effectively multi-task with an email or a text Bradberry uses research that refers to those multi-tasking moments as having the IQ of an eight-year-old to do so. Because of this, I do agree that technology use when you need to be actively listening or otherwise heavily cognitively involved is not beneficial or possible to be effective. However, I am yet to be convinced that music while I drive or read a book drops my IQ down to the level of an eight-year-old. After all, I am about 5 shots deep in whiskey writing this and certainly do not feel like an eight-year-old.
For another view on technology in the classroom and multi-tasking check out this blog post.
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