[Yr7-10it] A video about a 1-1 Apple laptop middle school in NYC
Phil Callil
P.Callil at xavier.vic.edu.au
Sun Sep 6 21:14:28 EST 2009
Geoff and Margaret,
Thanks for your comments. Geoff, your taste in music sounds similar to mine.... kids today just don't appreciate good music of yester year......
I've been doing a laptop preparation workshop for our Yr 8s who will purchase a portable computer of some kind next year... netbook, sub notebook, not quite sure yet.
Some of the topics covered include skill development, computer addiction, gaming, illegal downloading of music, identity theft, esecurity, social media use, home management, time wasting, sleep deprivation and multi tasking. Students complete activities that are auto corrected using our LMS. It seems to be filling a void with the result that students have more of an understanding of their responsibilities and obligations.
I appreciate your comments in trying to help me get my head around the whole idea of multitasking and its effectiveness or otherwise.
Cheers
Phil
Phil Callil
Faculty Head IT
Xavier College
9855-4163
www.xavier.vic.edu.au
Vice President VITTA
www.vitta.org.au/
iChat: pcallil at mac.com Skype: pcallil000
>>> Margaret Lawson <margaret.lawson at konstantkaos.net> 09/05/09 6:10 PM >>>
There was a report kicking around about 6 months ago which concluded
that multi-tasking while learning a concept for a first time inhibited
the retention rate of the students. Therefore it is harder to learn a
skill unless you are totally focused on the learning. However,
multitasking while repeating a skill already learnt (and ingrained) did
not inhibit the performance of the student.
Most adults know this instinctively, if we are trying to concentrate on
something whether it is reading a paper or parking a car, the music goes
off.
:)
Margaret
Geoff Moss wrote:
> Phil
>
> Your comment about listening to music with lyrics is true in many case
> with students. I tried it out as an experiment with students some
> years ago.
>
> At first I played music that was popular with the class and I
> observed, as did the students, that their workrate fell. They
> commented that they felt more comfortable in class and more relaxed,
> but admitted listening to, and in some cases singing with, the lyrics
> with songs they preferred.
>
> I then tried it with music of my era - the great era of the 60's and
> 70's. This was distracting to the students because they didn't like my
> taste in music. I ca appreciate their views but their work rate did
> not improve because they were trying to ignore the "oldies music".
>
> Then, we tried using background music from different generations. As
> background music, and at a low volume, the students were initially
> distracted but soon adjusted and we found that their workrate
> improved. Students commented that they tended to listen if they then
> recognised the tunes, but not as much as when there were lyrics.
>
> Multi-tasking fails miserably when the students have access to the
> internet, email or other distractions and I want them to participate
> in a lesson's discussion. Students listening to iPods and the like do
> not participate as well in class. We usually try this out at the
> start of the year to get the students to appreciate how much of a
> distraction they are. They even find that note taking and making
> summaries are less efficient and that they retain less information.
> For these reasons I do not allow students to listen to their iPods,
> etc when they are doing their SACs or during class discussion, and
> generally ban them from class time use.
>
> I am yet to be convinced that most students are able to work and study
> efficiently, let alone effectively, when distracted by music and the
> many other distractions available to them.
>
> I do appreciate, however, that if the adjacent environment is noisy
> and distracting that a more comfortable noise can be better than that
> distracting noise. Sometime students use music to break the external
> distractions and then convince themselves that they can study
> "better". I can recall doing this when I was studying, but I tended
> to use music that was not distracting, rather than popular music with
> lyrics.
>
> There have been several recent articles supporting the idea of
> multi-tasking is a myth, even for women. However, I do not wish to
> initiate an argument down that line.
>
> In the link that Roland referred to, the reference to multi-tasking
> was, IMHO, mis-used. It was used in the context that students may
> visit other sites, groom themselves, visit the internet, communicate
> with others, etc during the lesson. This occurs in our classes even
> without music or computers or the internet. Students have always
> "tuned out" at different stages during a lesson, particularly if they
> find it boring. They will distract themselves and others during the
> lesson.
>
> It merely highlights the need for us to make lessons that much more
> interesting and less tedious. If we vary activities during a lesson
> students will remain more focussed. We can even allow some "down
> time" for them. This often occurs when we change activities for
> instance.
>
> This is not multi-tasking per se. It is merely varying the
> activities. We can allow students to control that if we have set
> tasks which they have to complete during the lesson, which we know
> will not occupy the full lesson. Our warning to them is that if they
> do not get in done in class, it becomes homework. Nothing changed there.
>
> Geoff Moss
> RMIT
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Phil Callil"
> <p.callil at xavier.vic.edu.au>
> To: <yr7-10it at edulists.com.au>
> Sent: Saturday, September 05, 2009 2:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [Yr7-10it] A video about a 1-1 Apple laptop middle school
> in NYC
>
>
>> Thanks for this, Roland.
>>
>> There's no doubt that technology has helped to turn this school
>> around. I'm especially interested in their teachers' ideas about
>> multi tasking. Research is starting to show that effective
>> multitasking is a myth - it just dissipates focus and concentration
>> resulting in less effective use of time. This has real implications
>> for learning. For example, listening to music with lyrics has been
>> found to lessen learning time effectiveness.
>>
>> Personally I can't listen to music at all when I'm really trying to
>> sustain concentration on something important - but maybe that's a
>> generation or personal thing.
>>
>> It would be interesting to hear others' thoughts on multitasking.
>>
>> Best wishes
>>
>> Phil
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Phil Callil
>> Faculty Head IT
>> Xavier College
>> 9855-4163
>> www.xavier.vic.edu.au
>>
>> Vice President VITTA
>> www.vitta.org.au/
>>
>> iChat: pcallil at mac.com Skype: pcallil000
>>>>> Roland Gesthuizen <rgesthuizen at gmail.com> 09/05/09 1:07 PM >>>
>> Interesting video link posted by Caroline Meeks, an IAEP project
>> contributor
>> for Sugar, the operating system used on the OLPC computers.
>>
>> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/learning/schools/how-google-saved-a-school.html?play
>>
>> Towards the middle of the clip is an interview with the administrator
>> who
>> can observe the students on their Apple laptops. Its also an interesting
>> discussion about multi-tasking.
>>
>> Regards Roland
>>
>> --
>> Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
>> http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au
>>
>> "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
>> change
>> the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
>> </rgesthuizen at gmail.com>
>>
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--
Margaret Lawson
Konstant Kaos Designs
ABN 50 523 597 927
26 Nash Street
Northcote 3070
Victoria Australia
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margaret.lawson at konstantkaos.net
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Whilst every attempt has been made to ensure material in this email message
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