Monday, October 13, 2008

It's not attention deficit - it's evolution!


My colleagues accept the fact that I'm nearly always attached to some sort of digital prosthetic device - whether it's a laptop, a smartphone, or whatever I'm currently experimenting with. I take these tools with me to meetings to take notes, to check/verify information on the fly, and even to communicate with others in the meetings via backchannels.

We are changing as participants, and it's only natural that our previously-segmented digital participation (which used to occupy discrete, concentrated moments) is now merging with our physical participation. So why is there so much resistance from educators, who should be celebrating this as an revolution in thought and participation?

This morning two colleagues discussed their boredom and disengagement in meetings and presentations with me. The first revealed that he sometimes fiddles away with calculus to keep his mind active during meetings, and the second shared that she needs to keep her fingers busy in order to stimulate her mind. Both of these people are high-functioning, high-achieving professionals, but to the 'untrained eye' their 'fidgety proclivities' might look like the kinds of problems that are frequently narrowly defined as 'low attention spans' in children. In fact, one of my colleagues shared that she entered a meeting last week and was specifically instructed to close her laptop - presumably so she could focus on the meeting.

I have never been so stimulated and engaged in a 'passive' presentation as when I observed Julie Lindsay at Learning 2.008, and it was primarily because she not only trusted her participants, but because she activated a moderated back channel - and gave her audience something to do while listening. The challenge of 21st century learning - and meeting - is not how to banish tools that are becoming '2nd nature' to users, but how to capitalize on them, and to focus use so that we're working with technology instead of against it.