My son always wants to listen to his iPhone...in the car, before going to sleep, all the time. During the school year we had a recurring disagreement over the ability of students to multitask while doing homework. I think this article sheds a lot of light on the basic inability to multitask. In essence, there is no such thing...you may do two activities simultaneously, but multitasking is a myth. The article states that students should be encouraged to give their full and complete attention to their classwork. Facebooking, texting, watching tv all at once are all activities in which students may derive pleasure. But, does this condition students to multitask? I know during my graduate classes I can often be found trying to read over case studies while watching episodes of "Chopped". Usually, this is not done very successfully until I turn off the television.
Daniel Willingham is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. He has a terrific web site and publishes a lot of interesting articles. This is one of his older articles that I found particularly relevant to this topic. Let me know what you think!
Technology Changed How Students Think?
Have Technology and Multitasking Rewired How Students Learn?
http://www.danielwillingham.com/articles.html
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