Publish at October 13 2014 Updated February 09 2023
Clay Shirky teaches social media theory and practice at New York University (NYU). Definitely not the type to play censor on Internet use. Yet this fall semester, reluctantly, he asked his students to limit their use of laptops, tablets and phones in class.
Since 1998 when he taught about the Internet, he always let his students exploit its capabilities in his classes. Normal, the subject was the Internet and when its use was relevant it was great. Moreover, he saw the presence of these devices as a challenge, he had to be more interesting than the potential distractions they could create. Nor did he have any desire to infantilize his adult students by managing their time.
But in practice, the effects of technology use in his classroom continued to deteriorate. This was not because of the content of the course, or the type of students, or the professor, but because the devices and their applications were becoming more and more pervasive and powerful.
After a few years he noticed that when he needed everyone's attention and asked everyone to unplug, it was like a breath of fresh air. The level of conversation would rise and more recently, a sense of relief from several students would be expressed. Multi-tasking gets exhausting over time and when an opportunity to get out of it is offered, it is welcome.
Also, this year it went from a recommendation to "not use laptops and phones" to a requirement unless specifically asked to use them. "Allowed unless otherwise noted" has become "banned unless otherwise requested."
Multitasking may be good for productivity in some contexts, but is generally disastrous for intellectual work, especially in a learning context. Even if it doesn't always appear immediately, it affects declarative memory: "what they had learned, they don't remember." Worse, it gives the impression of being busy while what is supposed to be the object of attention is practically neglected; but one remains satisfied with the time spent!" Hello competence. Multi-taskers are the champions of impertinence, unable to prioritize. (Several references documenting the thing in the article).
The need for valorization (look how good I am) and flattery (how extraordianry what you do is), are elements of seducing the attention of users. We'd rather stick with what makes us feel good... which leads to social networks, which only pile on and make distraction a moment of self-aggrandizement that course content can't compete with emotionally. Sight, sound, and motion are called upon to distract and stir curiosity, a capacity that is quite active in humans, especially when it comes to personal messages.
Bref, these and other reasons have become enough to stop competing in the classroom with systems built and funded for anything other than helping students learn. It's not so much that the Internet and computers are the issue, these tools can be great learning aids, but rather that commercial systems and services are designed to distract and hog attention first and foremost at all times.
But the reason that was the grain that tipped the scales is that the bright screen acts much like secondhand smoke from cigarettes: it distracts everyone in the vicinity. Those who attend a class near someone who is multitasking do worse than those who don't see them. That's all about the contaminating effect of distraction, which confirmed his personal observations of a negative track record of continuous use of connected devices in class. Knowing this, each person becomes accountable for the degradation of the classroom atmosphere.
Combined with the fact that the slightest annoyance or difficulty of a student is enough to trigger the urge to go and see what's going on on his network, and stay there while it passes, and that it snowballs in the classroom, the decision then became obvious. No more student self-managed connectivity.
We may not be able to compete with FaceBook, but in the medium term it will be more beneficial for them to know how the media revolution unfolded than to have had Alex's impressions of a Rhianna hit.
So the role of the teacher extends beyond content and pedagogy to the study environment. Much has been said about the new role of the teacher moving from teacher to coach, to guide, but it seems to want to be further enriched by attention management in a study environment and to do this it will be with the students and not against them. Those who want to study and focus are fighting back in a world increasingly hostile to that goal. In the classroom, they will win.
Clay Shirky has his chalk and markers out and is ready to fight.
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Of course, we're talking about a traditional setting here (a teacher in front of an audience), but in this setting where attention is conventionally focused on the subject and the teacher, any distractions are obviously undesirable. So either we learn to contain them or we banish them.
The view from the other side, that of the students, is also interesting. The use of the phone between the legs, an initial response to a policy of banning devices and the aberration of interrupting the activity of an entire class to stop the distraction of a few, is also defensible, All cannot be simultaneously interested in the same subject at the same time, which can be solved with technology and personalization.
This debate illustrates the incompatibility in principle between a traditional form of education and the use of communication technologies.
_______________
Clay Shirky teaches at NYU, as an "Associate Arts Professor" in the Interactive Telecommunications program and also as an Associate Professor in the "Berkman Center for Internet and Society" and was an "Edward R. Murrow Visiting Lecturer" at "Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy" in 2010.
Source
Why Clay Shirky Banned Laptops, Tablets and Phones from His Classroom, by Clay Shirky - September 2014, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2014/09/why-clay-shirky-banned-laptops-tablets-and-phones-from-his-classroom/
Small breaks can ease distractions in class - Daniel Grzywacz - Daily Trojan - September 2013
http://dailytrojan.com/2011/09/13/small-breaks-can-ease-distractions-in-class/
Illustration: Hye You - Daily Trojan
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