The battle for students' attention

While teachers are fighting many battles head-on to ensure that the education being provided is the best, to listen to some, one war seems almost lost: it's the war for students' attention.

In fact, younger generations growing up with devices that never stop sending notifications. It's hard, as a result, for lectures to compete. Even less so in a remote setting where students can be distracted by the phone, chat, a parent breezing by the room, etc.

Constantly distracted

In 2015, a Microsoft study had shown that the average attention span had dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds with the advent of mobile technologies. With devices, it becomes easy to continuously monitor potential social network notifications, among other things. In addition, neuroscience reminds us that the part responsible for attention does not reach the end of its development until the mid-twenties. Thus, teachers must play the role of the prefrontal cortex of dozens, if not hundreds, of young people.

Many people have argued that the human brain is capable of multitasking. Yet experiments tend to show that this is very limited. On the contrary, if someone asks us to solve a complicated equation while walking, our reflex will be to slow down or even stop to think about it. How many drivers turn down the radio when it's time to do a slightly complex slot? By the way, studies have been done with highly multitasking students and less multitasking students. The former performed worse on all tests compared to the latter.

When principals were asked the effect of mobile devices on classroom distraction, the majority (71 %) said students were more distracted. It would even affect their social skills, with 40 % of kids having more trouble handling face-to-face problems according to them. Moreover, young people themselves admit to being unfocused. In this Minnesota school, out of 107 students surveyed, 48.6 % said they fall off the wagon every class and 47.7 % said it happens to them sometimes. Whether face-to-face or remote, they seem to have great difficulty staying focused.

Technologies: the poison and the cure

Of course, it's easy to point the finger at digital devices as sources of distraction. We can't deny that it's easy to get lost in them with the various applications, many of them entertainment. In fact, many despair at the complexity of keeping students remotely focused when they can spend hours in front of their screens playing games or listening to videos. The latter two activities are designed specifically to keep the viewer or player captive. By playing, among other things, the child is rewarded and the game addresses them, adapts to them.

Are teachers doing the same thing? Because it can be easy to become more distant because of video conferencing. Yet learners need emotional connection even more so with the filter of the screen. It may sound simplistic, but simply attending to individualities, calling them by their first name regularly, and encouraging them to interact can greatly change the mood and draw attention.

In fact, a lesson, especially online, requires adapting to the audience and format. It may not be possible to say everything in a course and that's okay. Teachers can take inspiration from this lesson thought for 5-6 year old students with short attention spans.

It is better to set up different activities to give interaction and desire for learners to continue listening and participating. And here we fall into a paradox since the same technologies denounced for decreasing concentration can help in order to energize a course. It becomes easier to create interactive solutions with sites, to produce learning vignettes, etc. 

Thus, just as snake or spider venom have been used to design antidotes, the technological "poison" has all the possibilities of distracting but also of proposing great interactive approaches that will keep learners attentive in class or at a distance.

Illustration : chenspec from Pixabay

References :

Agrawal, Harish. "How EdTech Can Help Improve Declining Student Attention Spans." Magic Box. Last updated : June 1 2020.
https://www.getmagicbox.com/blog/edtech-improve-declining-student-attention-spans/

Didau, David. "Classroom Distractions - What Task-switching Does to Students' Attention Spans." Teachwire. Last updated : 22 September 2020.
https://www.teachwire.net/news/classroom-distractions-what-task-switching-does-to-students-attention-spans

King, Britanny K. "ELearning Is Beneficial For Shrinking Attention Spans." ELearning Industry. Last updated : 3 September 2020.
https://elearningindustry.com/why-elearning-is-beneficial-shrinking-attention-spans

Klein, Alyson. "Why Principals Worry About How Mobile Devices Affect Students' Social Skills, Attention Spans." Education Week. Last updated : 2 June 2020.
https://www.edweek.org/technology/why-principals-worry-about-how-mobile-devices-affect-students-social-skills-attention-spans/2020/06

Lang, James M. "Distracted Minds: 3 Ways to Get Their Attention in Class." The Chronicle of Higher Education. Last updated : 19 October 2020.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/distracted-minds-3-ways-to-get-their-attention-in-class

Pachina, Elizaveta. "A Sample Lesson Plan for Students with a Low Attention Span." TEFL Course. Last updated : 28 January 2020.
https://www.teflcourse.net/blog/a-sample-lesson-plan-for-students-with-a-short-attention-span/

Palmer, Erik. "7 Ways to Keep Students' Attention in an Online Class." Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Last updated : 7 July 2020.
https://www.hmhco.com/blog/7-ways-to-keep-students-attention-in-an-online-class

Ramada, Mohamed. "12 Ways To Get (And Keep) Students' Attention In Class." English Language Teaching & Testing Guide. Last updated : 2 June 2020.
https://elttguide.com/12-ways-to-get-and-keep-students-attention-in-class/

Valley, Elizabeth. "Students Struggle to Pay Attention in Class." Knight Errant. Last updated : 5 May 2020.
https://bsmknighterrant.org/2020/05/05/students-struggle-to-pay-attention-in-class/

"Why Can't Children Pay Attention During Online Learning?" Elementary Matters. Last updated September 2020.
https://www.elementarymatters.com/2020/09/why-cant-children-pay-attention-during.html