MEDIA MULTITASKING

BELSIE D. PABILLION

There is a growing concern about students’use of technology. But what is more alarming is their focus on the task at hand, even while using the internet: media multitasking while learning.

This is the young people’s tendency to attend to multiple streams of information and entertainment while studying, doing homework, or even sitting in class. This has become a problem, because many of them rarely complete a task.

According to studies, multitasking while doing schoolwork results to spottier and shallower learning for students, than if the work had their full attention. Because they understand and remember less, students have difficulty transferring their learning to new contexts.

What we adults have neglected to see is that the media multitasking habit starts early.

A survey conducted in 2010 showed that almost a third of those surveyed said that when they were doing homework, “most of the time” they were also watching TV, texting, listening to music, or using some other medium – which is, like pointed out earlier, rather alarming.

Media multitasking should not concern us if our students are doing it while doing something extracurricular, but when it comes to learning and serious work, students should be focused.

A line should be drawn by parents and teachers when it comes to studying; they should tell the kids that there is a time when they should just concentrate on just one thing. They should not feel bad when they tell the children to do this, as this is not an unreasonable thing to ask of kids.

Just make sure to have an agreement with them: when they’re doing schoolwork, the cell phones are silent and the video screens are dark.

— oOo— The author is Teacher III at Sta. Maria Elementary School, Lubao East District, Pampanga