The issue I wish to discuss is #6: student attention spans in a digital world. Honestly, I do believe that technology has shortened our attention spans substantially. Although, I also believe that students have become pretty good at multi-tasking in order to accomplish a task. Do I think that they will accomplish the task at hand to the best of their abilities? No, but students in our technology age do enough work to get by.
Technology has definitely affected our attention spans, but I do not think a consensus can be made across the board as to whether it is a positive or negative effect. Some people thrive on using multiple types of technology at once. For example, I am typing up this blog, listening to music, and talking to my roommate. Typically, I focus best when I am not distracted, but I have learned to function at a level that allows me to complete my assignment. I believe that this balancing act can also be applied in a classroom: students are able to focus enough to get a task accomplished. However, I do not think that their attention spans allow them to create their best work. We have become used to distracting ourselves so easily with Facebook, cell phones, TV, etc. This does concern me for my students' sake because I want to see their best work in and out of the classroom. I worry that too many distractions detract from their schoolwork and from their development of their mathematical maturity. If they do not take it seriously, I cannot expect them to truly learn the material.
I suppose that students will get either better at sorting through distractions or it will get worse, leading them to succumb to technological distractions.
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