The widespread rumor among teachers that technology decreases student’s attention span is exactly that – just a rumor, reported nytimes.com. Students demand more of the teachers nowadays and the chasm between skilled and rather unskilled teachers grows wider.
“Teaching is a skill,” Delilah Cramer, a freshman majoring in business marketing from California. “Good teachers know how to catch your attention with and without technology, and others don’t have that skill as strongly.”
She shared the experience of spending a day with her dad, a teacher, at work. “He would just capture everybody’s attention as he would talk and interact with the students.”
Tom Court, professor in the English department, said, “Especially for language learning and teaching, technology is a great tool. It is important the technology actually helps clarify meaning, makes content more accessible to the learner and should be able to reach more learners.”
Online classes are becoming more and more common, accessible and convenient. “I came here before the mission,” said Spencer Wall, a sophomore majoring in exercise science from Georgia, ”and then versus now there are so many more online courses offered. As far as I remember there wasn’t even a way to do BYUH online. But now there is and if you need to travel you can still go to school.”
“Technology is advancing so much”, said Cramer, “Maybe 10 years ago there were no computers here and today we literally take our tests on them. It will change a lot in the next decade.” Nevertheless she believes in the power of real teachers. “The one-on-one interaction is really good.”
“I teach English,” said Court, “so I need my students responding to me, to engage how well they follow. My classes involve a lot of participation. The focus should always be ‘what is the student doing?’ instead of ‘what am I doing?’ If the students are increasing their knowledge, are developing their skills and want to learn more, then the teacher is doing his or her job. If one of these things is not happening, there is a serious problem.”
The great fear technology diminishes the student’s attention still holds deep in teachers. The demands for both worthwhile and entertaining ways of instruction grow large. Wall admitted technology sometimes distracts him in class, though he attributes it to one single factor.
“If I am interested, then it is easier for me to pay attention. Sometimes the teacher doesn’t really care what we do.”
He continued, “A good teacher is going to grab your attention no matter what. Whether or not you have the technology. Some of my favorite teachers I have ever had allow us to use technology, but we didn’t really use it much, because we all were just paying attention. But there are other teachers who have to restrict it so you pay attention.”
Self-discipline is an antidote for the distraction of buzzing text messages and Facebook posts, Cramer said. “Yeah it is distracting, but it is up to the person.”
She said technology changes the way how information is received and processed. “We have so much in our hands now. Back then my mom was like, ‘When I had to look up the definition of a word I needed to look at a book.’ I just look it up on my computer. How we are learning is changing a lot.”