Short attention span....What???

Is educational technology shortening our students’ attention spans? Yes.....


Wait…what? Was I asked a question? I wasn’t paying attention. I absolutely think that that the availability and the use of some of the educational technology are shortening the attention spans of students. Kids already have a thousand things going through their minds before you introduce them to technology, and in the end something has got to give. Unfortunately as teachers we might see this in a shortened attention span.


I agree with David Marcovitz, that while yes, technology might be shortening attention spans; it does deserve a place in out schools. Does it necessarily mean we should have classes to prepare our students to sit through three hours of lecture without disengaging from the lecture material at all? No, but I think it is important that students have the ability to have some sort of attention span. It will eventually come back to haunt them in the future, if they don’t have a way to stay engaged in one or two tasks. My initial concern is how our students will handle a job interview. If they have been in a classroom or environment where having no requirements for paying attention, how will they act when in they are in an office interviewing for a job?

It’s nice to teacher our students it’s alright to be engaged in several things at once. And it might be nice to have that in a classroom every once in a while, but to omit or leave out the pure necessity to have a focused and engaged attention on a few things at a time could eventually harm our kids chances to succeed in the future. As with almost everything we must find a balance, of yes do a hundred things at a time and be happy and successful at that, but when that time comes be prepared to focus in on a single objective or task at hand.