Educational Article: Driven to distraction: How to help wired students learn to focus

The 21st Century Fluency blog posted an article recently titled "Driven to distraction: How to help wired students learn to focus." The post posed the question "How do we get our distracted digital students to focus in this age of Google and gadgetry?"

In my classroom with 1:1 iPads it is an interesting question - how do you balance the multi-tasking potential of technology; the ability to listen to music while reading or researching to the practice of helping students focus.

As the article states "students were only able to stay on task for an average of three to five minute
s before losing their focus. Universally, their distractions came from technology, including: (1) having more devices available in their studying environment such as iPods, laptops, and smart phones; (2) texting; and (3) accessing Facebook."

To read further statistical findings I recommend reading the article. In my opinion this access to potential distractions is going to further widen the gap between those who are and are not motivated - motivation is a great tool to help with focus. I have no doubt further research and strategies will be developed examining how we help this generation to fight distraction.