Differentiated Distraction and blocking?

Friday, June 03, 2011

I was speaking with a seasoned classroom teacher yesterday about our 1:1 program in the High School. This guy is no luddite, but he’s also not on the “bleeding technology edge”. He is a consummate professional and well-respected amongst our high school staff. I asked him to share his thoughts about our 1:1 program.

“Well, Bill, you know the 500 pound elephant in the room is...”

I started praying his next words weren’t “..our horrible technology director...”

He continued, “is distraction.”

We started digging into this. There are some kids in his classes that are using technology in ways that make sense for him such as taking excellent notes and then sharing them online. However there are some kids in his class who are measurably suffering because they are distracted. Instead of notes, they are doing Other Stuff. Fill in the blank, playing games, on facebook, chatting, etc...

I hear from many teachers, parents, and even students that distraction is a major concern. I get it. I know divided attention (aka multitasking) hinders learning. I also know when technology is used effectively it really transforms teaching and learning.

As we were talking, I kept coming back to this idea that some kids were doing well with technology and some weren’t. I taught for 10 years, I moved kids around my classroom if they needed to be closer to the front. I made every effort to differentiate my instruction so different learning styles could access the content.

Why not do this with technology? If a student has a problem focusing, or is easily distracted, why not support that student by blocking all but the most important applications? If a student has special learning needs, we make accommodations. However in technology what I see is a “block everything or block nothing” approach.

I think of this an potentially important tool in the “how can we support students” toolbox.





Now for the obligatory explanation stuff:

1. I understand effective classroom management is intimately related to effective teaching.
2. I understand selectively blocking alone will not fix anything about distraction - but it will help.
3. I understand teaching and learning in a 1:1 classroom requires a different way of thinking about learning and teaching.
4. I understand kids can always become distracted. But I know there is something about technology that magnifies this.
5. I understand blocking will not keep a determined student to become distracted. If a kid wants to not pay attention in class, there is little we can do to stop them

Curious to hear your thoughts...

On 08 June 2011, Nicole inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Wow, I just found your blog today and its awesome!
I agree with the five statements at the end. I worked in a one to one classroom and it was extremely difficult to manage 30 students computer usage while delivering instruction.  Distraction is a nature part of work or learning we adults engage in it regularly whether its discussing our personal lives or checking our personal email. Vigilance and persistence are essential in monitoring student work and blocking inappropriate content as much as possible. Some of the things my junior high students were accessing were pornographic or gave adults access to them. It is vital to have conversations about safety with students so that they understand why we are blocking the sites we do.

On 21 June 2011, Hilary inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

I enjoyed reading this post. I think the idea of blocking can be worth while depending on what you’re blocking. I’m also interested in how we can incorporate the use of some of the social media tools into the classroom other than for taking notes etc. I found this article interesting, not sure if you’ve seen it:-

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/06/08/twitter.school/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

This coupled with your post has made me think even more about how we engage and support young people to use the internet effectively.