Peter Considine and Dr John Ramsay

Digital Distraction vs. Digital Engagement? (Turn it off or…)

Digital Distraction and Engagement.

“The evidence of the detrimental effects of digital distraction on learning has been accumulating and may now be sufficient to suggest that we ought to be doing something to deal with the problem£. (Dr John Ramsay. Email to academics in BEL March 2014)

So detrimental is this practice that some researchers are proposing that a new prerequisite for academic and even professional success—the new marshmallow test of self-discipline—is the ability to resist a blinking inbox or a buzzing phone.

Attending to multiple streams of information and entertainment while studying, doing homework, or even sitting in class has become common behaviour among young people—so common that many of them rarely write a paper or complete a problem set any other way”

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/multitasking_while_studying_divided_attention_and_technological_gadgets.html

Rosen’s Study (2013)• For a quarter of an hour, the investigators from the lab of Larry

Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University–Dominguez Hills, marked down once a minute what the students were doing as they studied.

• A checklist on the form included: reading a book, writing on paper, typing on the computer—and also using email, looking at Facebook, engaging in instant messaging, texting, talking on the phone, watching television, listening to music, surfing the Web.

• The observers counted the number of windows open on the students’ screens and noted whether the students were wearing earbuds.

Although the students had been told at the outset that they should “study something important, including homework, an upcoming examination or project, or reading a book for a course,” it wasn’t long before their attention drifted:

Students’ “on-task behaviour” started declining around the two-minute mark as they began responding to arriving texts or checking their Facebook feeds. By the time the 15 minutes were up, they had spent only about 65 percent of the observation period actually doing their schoolwork.

“We were amazed at how frequently they multitasked, even though they knew someone was watching,” Rosen says. “It really seems that they could not go for 15 minutes without engaging their devices,” adding, “It was kind of scary, actually.”

Rosen argues that all our tech gadgets and applications are turning us into basket-cases suffering from versions of obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention-deficit syndrome....

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/multitasking_while_studying_divided_attention_and_technological_gadgets.html

Digital Distraction Reduction Strategies 1.

• John Ramsay in 2011 and noticing a high level of digital distraction, developed a technique to persuade students in class to stop playing with their digital toys.

• It proved impossible for some students to go without digital stimulation for an entire hour or more (some become genuinely, extremely anxious),

• So John then asked them to put them away out of sight, with the promise of a 3 minute phone break every 20 minutes…

• John has recently suggested instead of breaks every fixed period of time we could begin with the pending new level 4s coming in this year and introduce ‘tech breaks’ every 15 minutes to begin with, and then gradually extend the time between breaks over the first semester.

• The idea is to train students to go longer without requiring “digital stimulation”

Digital Distraction Reduction Strategies 2.

DD Strategies 3. Rosen on “Technology Breaks”

• Rosen has suggestions for fighting back, and some of them are counterintuitive. Instead of resisting the urge to text, check Facebook or watch a YouTube video, Rosen says just do it. i.e. Cure the tech disorder with a dose of more technology.

• Rosen calls this “a tech break”. But rather than taking a break from technology, you give yourself permission to embrace technology for a particular amount of time, be it one minute or 15. “It works amazingly,” he says....

• The trick is to be disciplined and only take tech breaks at predefined intervals. One example would be to work hard for 10 minutes, and then allow yourself one minute to check email.

• For a child doing homework, Rosen suggests for example rewarding the child with 15 minutes of tech time for each half-hour of focused study. Rosen advises giving the child an option of spending the 15 minutes immediately or accumulating it for later use.

• http://hechingered.org/content/how-a-tech-break-can-help-students-refocus_4556/

DD Strategies 4: Playing the Digital (Business) Game

• Since 2007 I have been using business games/simulations in teaching, learning assessment and have certainly noticed that our digital native students engage very well with this “media” with its strong competitive element.

• With on-line mobile access• The challenge here is aligning students learning

with module LO’s as they enjoy the digital game and also learn in parallel the concepts

1. International Business Strategy: “Country Manager”

2. Strategic Management: “StratSim Manager”

Assessment Model: 30% Group Case Submission

70% Traditional Case – but set within same industry Context

Assessment Model: 100% traditional case based assessment was split 50/50 with a selection of Mini-Learning Portfolios and a “Final Traditional” Case.

Metrics: Comparison between case based vs. case plus simulation – on International Strategy 2004 to 2008  Case Only

Case plus Simulations

Mean 60.55 63.70Observations 92 57Hypothesized Mean Difference 0df 142t Stat - test significant -1.995t Critical one-tail 1.656

Comparing the results of the final case element (weighted at 70% post the simulations cf. 100% before), students exposed to the simulation over the 2 years achieved better at just over 62% We can infer here that integration with the simulation helped in the understanding and application of concepts in the TCM element. c.f. the study of Mitchell (2004) who found no significant changes – in contrast with studies by Faria (2001); Towler (2007)

P J Considine SAGSET 2009 15

• Generative learning (Wittrock 1990) using simulation has provided our students with opportunities to organise course content, integrate new content with students’ current knowledge, and to elaborate on course content by making connections to real-world events.

• Kiili (2007) “Problem Based Gaming” (PBG) attainable using Business Simulations vis. Problem Based Learning (PBL)

• “These opportunities have promoted less reliance on tutors’ lectures and simultaneously created more self-reliance among students and better preparation for managerial careers” [adapted from Wittrock (1974, 1990, 1992); David C. Sharp, Dave S. Knowlton, Renée E.Weiss (2005)

• Changing Roles of the tutor. During the lab session my role is more that of a consultant/advisor than that of the traditional tutor led didactic environment.

Simulations and Generative Learning

Functioning Knowledge

.

Conditional Knowledge

Declarative knowledge (dominant in Universities):

Propositional knowledge – taught/researched knowledge – what we “declare in lectures” e.g. Biggs(2003) SOLO after “extended abstract”

Procedural knowledge: Skill Based, functioning knowledge without a conceptual foundation

Subsumes both procedural and higher level declarative knowledge

Professional “K”: (Functioning, specific – deals with executing, applying & making priorities )*

University “K”: Declarative, abstract and conceptual (labelling, differentiating, elaborating & justifying) *

* McCarthy Young & Merryman (1995) in Biggs (2003)

Problem Based Learning (PBL)/ or Problem Based Gaming (PBG): Kiili (2007)

Proposition: Learning Business Strategy: The Role of Simulations in “Top Down” and in “Bottom Up” Learning

DD Strategies 5 Misc• Apps such as Clicker – students using mobile devices to do

learning polls in class?

• Policy instruments? Not too popular

• Deploy an RF jammer …?

• Time/Distraction Multi-Tasking Management skills for our students – a new Staffordshire Graduate Attribute?

• Thank you for your time – and attention…

1. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/multitasking_while_studying_divided_attention_and_technological_gadgets.html

2. (http://www.contemplativecomputing.org/2011/11/larry-rosen-on-technology-breaks.html

3. http://www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet