Posted: September 13th, 2017

Analysis of the Article "Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say"

Analysis of the Article “Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/education/technology-is-changing-how-students-learn-teachers-say.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Accessed 15 Jan. 2014
Technology Changing How Students Learn,
Teachers Say

Matt Richtel for The New York Times Education page
Published: November 1, 2012

There is a widespread belief among teachers that students’ constant use of digital technology is
hampering their attention spans and ability to persevere in the face of challenging tasks,
according to two surveys of teachers being released on Thursday.
Hope  Molina-Porter,  an  English  teacher  in  Fullerton,  Calif.,  worries  that  technology  is  deeply
altering  how  students  learn.  The  researchers  note  that  their  findings  represent  the  subjective
views of teachers and should not be seen as definitive proof that widespread use of computers,
phones and video games affects students’ capability to focus.
Even so, the researchers who performed the studies, as well as scholars who study technology’s
impact on behavior and the brain, say the studies are significant because of the vantage points of
teachers, who spend hours a day observing students.
The  timing  of  the  studies,  from  two  well-regarded  research  organizations,  appears  to  be
coincidental.
One  was  conducted  by  the  Pew  Internet  Project,  a  division  of  the Pew  Research  Center that
focuses  on  technology-related  research.  The  other  comes  from  Common  Sense  Media,  a
nonprofit  organization  in  San  Francisco  that  advises  parents  on  media  use  by  children.  It  was
conducted  by Vicky  Rideout,  a  researcher  who  has  previously  shown  that  media  use  among
children and teenagers ages 8 to 18 has grown so fast that they on average spend twice as much
time with screens each year as they spend in school.
Teachers who were not involved in the surveys echoed their findings in interviews, saying they
felt they had to work harder to capture and hold students’ attention.
“I’m an entertainer. I have to do a song and dance to capture their attention,” said Hope Molina-Porter,  37,  an  English  teacher  at  Troy  High  School  in  Fullerton,  Calif.,  who  has  taught  for  14
years. She teaches accelerated students, but has noted a marked decline in the depth and analysis
of their written work.

She said she did not want to shrink from the challenge of engaging them, nor did other teachers
interviewed, but  she  also  worried  that  technology  was  causing  a  deeper  shift  in  how  students
learned. She also wondered if teachers were adding to the problem by adjusting their lessons to
accommodate shorter attention spans.
“Are we contributing to this?” Ms. Molina-Porter said. “What’s going to happen when they don’t
have constant entertainment?” Scholars who study the role of media in society say no long-term
studies  have  been  done  that  adequately  show  how  and  if  student  attention  span  has  changed
because  of  the  use of  digital  technology.  But  there  is  mounting  indirect  evidence  that  constant
use  of  technology  can  affect  behavior,  particularly  in  developing  brains,  because  of  heavy
stimulation and rapid shifts in attention.
Kristen Purcell, the associate director for research at Pew, acknowledged that the findings could
be  viewed  from  another  perspective:  that  the  education  system  must  adjust  to  better
accommodate  the  way  students  learn,  a  point  that  some  teachers  brought  up  in  focus  groups
themselves. “What we’re labeling as ‘distraction,’ some see as a failure of adults to see how
these kids process information,” Ms. Purcell said. “They’re not saying distraction is good but
that the label of ‘distraction’ is a judgment of this generation.”
The surveys also found that many teachers said technology could be a useful educational tool. In
the Pew survey, which was done in conjunction with the College Board and the National Writing
Project, roughly 75 percent of 2,462 teachers surveyed said that the Internet and search engines
had a “mostly positive” impact on student research skills. And they said such tools had made
students  more  self-sufficient  researchers.  But  nearly  90  percent  said  that  digital  technologies
were creating “an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.” Similarly, of the 685
teachers  surveyed  in  the  Common  Sense  project,  71  percent  said  they  thought  technology  was
hurting attention span “somewhat” or “a lot.” About 60 percent said it hindered students’ ability
to  write  and  communicate  face to  face,  and  almost  half  said  it  hurt  critical  thinking  and  their
ability to do homework. There was little difference in how younger and older teachers perceived
the impact of technology.
“Boy, is this a clarion call for a healthy and balanced media diet,” said Jim Steyer, the chief
executive of Common Sense Media. He added, “What you have to understand as a parent is that
what happens in the home with media consumption can affect academic achievement.”
In interviews, teachers described what might be called a “Wikipedia problem,” in which students
have  grown  so  accustomed  to  getting  quick  answers  with  a  few  keystrokes  that  they  are  more
likely to give up when an easy answer eludes them. The Pew research found that 76 percent of
teachers believed students had been conditioned by the Internet to find quick answers.
“They need skills that are different than ‘Spit, spit, there’s the answer,’ ” said Lisa Baldwin, 48, a
high school teacher in Great Barrington, Mass., who said students’ ability to focus and fight
through academic challenges was suffering an “exponential decline.” She said she saw the
decline most sharply in students whose parents allowed unfettered  access to television, phones,
iPads and video games.

For her part, Ms. Baldwin said she refused to lower her expectations or shift her teaching style to
be  more  entertaining.  But  she  does  spend  much  more  time  in  individual  tutoring  sessions,  she
added, coaching students on how to work through challenging assignments.
Other teachers said technology was as much a solution as a problem. Dave Mendell, 44, a fourth-grade  teacher  in  Wallingford,  Pa.,  said  that  educational  video  games  and  digital  presentations
were excellent ways to engage students on their terms. Teachers also said they were using more
dynamic and flexible teaching styles.
“I’m tap dancing all over the place,” Mr. Mendell said. “The more I stand in front of class, the
easier it is to lose them.”
He added that it was tougher to engage students, but that once they were engaged, they were just
as  able  to  solve  problems  and  be  creative  as  they  had  been  in  the  past.  He  would  prefer,  he
added, for students to use less entertainment media at home, but he did not believe it represented
an insurmountable challenge for teaching them at school.
While  the  Pew  research  explored  how  technology  has  affected  attention  span,  it  also  looked  at
how  the  Internet  has  changed  student  research  habits.  By  contrast,  the  Common  Sense  survey
focused largely on how teachers saw the impact of entertainment media on a range of classroom
skills.
The  surveys  include  some  findings  that  appear  contradictory.  In  the  Common  Sense  report,  for
instance, some teachers said that even as they saw attention spans wane, students were improving
in subjects like math, science and reading.
But  researchers  said  the  conflicting  views  could  be  the  result  of  subjectivity  and  bias.  For
example,  teachers  may  perceive  themselves  facing  both  a  more  difficult  challenge  but  also
believe that they are overcoming the challenge through effective teaching.
Pew said its research gave a “complex and at times contradictory” picture of teachers’ view of
technology’s impact.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis, who studies the impact of technology on the brain and is the director of
the  Center  for  Child  Health,  Behavior  and  Development  at  Seattle  Children’s  Hospital,
emphasized that teachers’ views were subjective but nevertheless could be accurate in sensing
dwindling  attention  spans  among  students.  His  own  research  shows  what  happens  to  attention
and focus  in  mice  when  they  undergo  the  equivalent  of  heavy  digital  stimulation.  Students
saturated by entertainment media, he said, were experiencing a “supernatural” stimulation that
teachers might have to keep up with or simulate. The heavy technology use, Dr. Christakis said,
“makes reality by comparison uninteresting.”

PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT 🙂

Expert paper writers are just a few clicks away

Place an order in 3 easy steps. Takes less than 5 mins.

Calculate the price of your order

You will get a personal manager and a discount.
We'll send you the first draft for approval by at
Total price:
$0.00
Live Chat+1-631-333-0101EmailWhatsApp