Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 14, No. 764.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
[1] From: Mark Wolff <WolffM0@hartwick.edu> (38)
Subject: Re: 14.0759 multitasking; or, the obsolescence of
concentration
[2] From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org> (29)
Subject: Re: 14.0759 multitasking; or, the obsolescence of
concentration
[3] From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org> (35)
Subject: Re: 14.0759 multitasking; or, the obsolescence of
concentration
[4] From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk> (35)
Subject: Re: 14.0759 multitasking; or, the obsolescence of
concentration
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 07:53:13 +0000
From: Mark Wolff <WolffM0@hartwick.edu>
Subject: Re: 14.0759 multitasking; or, the obsolescence of
concentration
I personally have experienced student abuse of laptops in a class I
teach on cyberspace. I try to make it a teaching moment for them,
especially since the class is about how we use computers in today's
culture. I ask them to explain how they can "multitask" and what that
means to who they are in and out of the classroom. I argue with some
psychologists like Sherry Turkle at MIT that cyberspace promotes the
development of multiple aspects of the self. The students resist this
idea, insisting their identities are constant and whole no matter how
many windows are open on their desktop. This critical reflexivity only
goes so far, and students eventually return to AOL Instant Messenger and
tune me out.
I am pretty resigned to this situation. I am sure my students are
learning something in my class, it's just that sometimes I think the
technology gets in the way of learning. As someone who has committed
himself to humanities computing, I feel strange saying that.
I think the multitasking afforded by technology is antithetical to the
kind of education we promote in American liberal arts colleges. With
multitasking you do not think so much as react to stimuli. To think
critically in the liberal arts tradition, you have to focus on ideas and
dwell on them. You do not process. If a college goes wireless on
campus and students can be anywhere in cyberspace, why should they be
present on campus, either intellectually or even physically?
In her book "How We Became Posthuman," Katherine Hayles talks about
distributed cognition. Not only are computers doing some of our
thinking for us, but we are "thinking" is discrete yet simultaneous ways
through our use of technology. I don't know if we can stop this, but it
does not bode well for traditional liberal arts colleges. How do we
refashion ourselves to adjust to the new technology? Do we simply give
up on the classroom and teach through a window on a desktop?
mw
-- Mark B. Wolff Modern and Classical Languages Center for Learning and Teaching with Technology Hartwick College Oneonta, NY 13820 (607) 431-4615http://users.hartwick.edu/wolffm0/
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 07:55:32 +0000 From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org> Subject: Re: 14.0759 multitasking; or, the obsolescence of concentration
Students have always ignored their teachers for a decent portion of class time, from time immemorial. . .and this is a decent porttion of the reason that the students went on to do things beyond what teachers taught them. . .they *integrated* the classroom experience into *life* .. . .thus bringing life to what often was the dullest, most boring experience of their entire lives. . . .
The students who is off in dreamland may just be dreaming up what the next generations of teachers will be teaching. . . .
The people who *created* the subject matter the teachers were teaching were NOT those who sat like rows of "knowledgable cabbages" in their classrooms. [#6]
> > Their arguments could apply equally well to the opera hall, > the jury box or the church pew. Will the lure of > technological stimulation someday overwhelm current mores > about paying attention in those places, too? At least, we > should try to stem the tide in the classroom. ... >
"Try to stem the tide in the classroom:?!?
Sir! I *beg* to differ. . . the classroom is where the tides start, or at least *should* start!
If you stifle ripples in the classroom, where is the new tide?
Thanks!
So nice to hear from you!
Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> Project Gutenberg "Ask Dr. Internet" Executive Director Internet User ~#100
--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 07:55:58 +0000 From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org> Subject: Re: 14.0759 multitasking; or, the obsolescence of concentration
I have separated my reply here to the non-classroom portions of the messages to which I am replying:
On Wed, 21 Mar 2001, Humanist Discussion Group wrote: > > Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 06:36:05 +0000 > From: John Lavagnino <John.Lavagnino@kcl.ac.uk> > > > > Their arguments could apply equally well to the opera hall, > the jury box or the church pew. Will the lure of > technological stimulation someday overwhelm current mores > about paying attention in those places, too? At least, we > should try to stem the tide in the classroom. ... > > Curiously enough, there was an article in the Times within the last > few years about how Americans now assume they can also eat anywhere > they like, and are having to be told that (for example) you shouldn't > bring snacks to church. > >
Any children can tell you the church pew is even more repressive than their seats in their various classrooms, even of policed by priests and nuns. Children are not adults, and Christ new that, even commented on the difference, and not negatively. . . .
As for the jury box, if the jurors were told what their rights as jurors ARE, they wouldn't have so much trouble in the box. However, jurors are manipulated in a stranglehold at least as great as children at school desks and in church pews.
Thanks!
So nice to hear from you!
Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> Project Gutenberg "Ask Dr. Internet" Executive Director Internet User ~#100 --[4]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 10:02:13 +0000 From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk> Subject: Re: 14.0759 multitasking; or, the obsolescence of concentration
Classes can be dull, instructors incompetent, even indifferent to the presence of students. I once had a mathematics instructor, a graduate student, who was so terrified of us students that he stood about an inch from the chalk board and muttered to himself the whole time he wrote out very small equations. Had we possessed laptops then, in the mid 1960s, we would have been at them for sure, and possibly he would have been grateful. But we all have such stories, yes? Let us put them aside for the moment.
I think we should be able to recognise simple rudeness when we encounter it, and deal with it as rudeness, not some hypertheorised postmodern state. Nor should we call it "multitasking", which is a degrading computational metaphor. I teach in classrooms filled with computers -- public-access rooms, alas. My first task is to eject the students who are not in the class, and throughout the class period I have to take steps to keep others from sauntering in as if they owned the place. Locking the door works, when you can; placing a rubbish bin and several chairs in front of the door keeps most intruders out when you cannot, though not all of them. Occasionally when I am lecturing I still have to tell my own students not to be reading their e-mail. I can certainly appreciate the constant work that a fragile relationship demands, the anxiety over the contents of the next e-mail message and so forth. But I'm there to teach them, so "the sharp compassion of the healer's art" is sometimes required. If I can give it up for the hour, so can they :-). If all we accomplish is to teach the students what concentration is all about -- in the academic mode, that is -- we've done quite a bit in these late and degenerate times....
Is there any evidence that the fascination exerted by computers is lessening as they become more familiar?
Yours, WM
----- Dr Willard McCarty / Senior Lecturer / Centre for Computing in the Humanities / King's College London / Strand / London WC2R 2LS / U.K. / +44 (0)20 7848-2784 / ilex.cc.kcl.ac.uk/wlm/
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