Teaching Tip #93

Teacherscribe’s Teaching Tip #93

Discourage multi-tasking

The myth of multi-tasking is something I battle against constantly on a daily basis in my classroom.  I allow students to use their cell phones and have their computers open all the time.  However, I do this because I try to see if my students can really multi-task.  And I have observed for three years now that they clearly cannot.  A student cannot be engaging on Snapchat with another student, buying something from Zappos for prom, and also engaging in a discussion on “Young Goodman Brown” all at the same time.

So I tend to side with this video on multi-tasking:  the human mind simply cannot do more than one complex task at a time, and those who try to multi-task are really being less efficient.  I do find a few interesting points, though, in the second video.  Namely, that it’s vital to learn to be still and focused.  I think that is paramount for students to master in order to be successful in the 21st century workplace.