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Educator's Voice

Volume 4, Issue 8
August 13, 2003

eLearning for the MTV Generation: ADD and Anytime, Anywhere on the WWW

I was recently reading an article (http://www.linezine.com/7.2/articles/tdeatae.htm) written by Thomas H. Davenport, one of the authors of "The Attention Economy," in which he discusses the topic of online training in the workplace. Within the article, he asks the very relevant question: "And what are the implications for knowledge workers already struggling to divide their attention between their work life and home life, while also being told that 'anytime, anywhere learning' is the wave of the future?" This question can shed some light on a very real situation for education today, and the customers, the students, who are buying the "product" of knowledge from us, the educators.

Although the article in mention specifically discusses eLearning in the corporate training realm, the points that are raised very much affect the goals of the traditional college, high school or continuing education environment with which most of us are involved. Students today are busy, and the attention levels that they bring to the classroom are pulled in all kinds of directions. To add to the various distractions and responsibilities that are constantly eating up our students' time and attention, many of the students currently taking online courses are very much members of the "MTV Generation"--a generation brought up on television shows that are comprised of short, disconnected clips and broken (if any) story-lines. The idea of narrative has truly become deconstructed as a result of these programming formats.

Although you've probably heard the concept of presenting online materials in "small, digestible bits" a thousand times, it really becomes central in a discussion of teaching students of the "MTV Generation." A generation that was raised on flashy commercials and vivid special effects now comprises a good portion of the "butts in seats" for many of our learning institutions.

Although it might seem like this also would entail a lot of interactive multimedia, that doesn't necessarily have to be the case: simply breaking pages up for less scrolling, and including interesting graphics that enhance the learning can make a world of difference. But, this oft-repeated golden rule of the new school of educational theory doesn't preclude the fact that sometimes students still have to create large projects, which often entail a good deal of self-motivation and do require the paying of some serious, unbroken attention. So, you might ask, how can we find out where is this attention commodity being spent, and how can we claim a piece of it?

One avenue I found to assess attention levels, and (at the bare minimum) to get our students to begin thinking about where their limited attention is going, is a free exercise created by the authors of the above mentioned book, a patent pending diagnostic tool, called AttentionScape, which can be accessed at: http://www.attentionbook.com/atec04.asp (you do have to sign-up for a new account on this page, but the service is free). This quick exercise allows an individual or a group to enter all of the activities and thoughts that absorb their attention throughout the day, and rate those things based on what kind of attention is paid to them--front of the mind or back of the mind, etc.

The opportunity to have your students go through the steps to really think about the things that take up their commoditized attention might very well be a great exercise for everyone involved, as it could help students plan their time and instructors know exactly where the students are coming from--particularly at points in a semester or term when the students are gearing up for a large individual or group project. Students could use the data to gauge various items of importance to them, and plan time to take care of those things so as not to hinder the quality of the time/attention they can pay to their schoolwork. In planning for larger projects, a tool like the one mentioned could be used at various stages in the planning/execution of the project to ensure that the project (as well as important life events) are being given the effort and thought that they deserve.

Although tools like this certainly aren't final answers, the simple fact that we can bring the topic of the potentially very dispersed attentions of our students to the front of their minds has some real potential; if nothing but as a discussion-starter--i.e. "Take the quiz, and then join me in the threaded discussion to talk about your results, and think about how we can maximize our time and thus maximize our learning experience in the upcoming term."

Since eLearning is being touted as the "wave of the future," and many of the people catching that wave have certainly grown up under the influential wing of MTV-style media, this certainly isn't the last time we'll think about this topic of attention deficits affecting the performance levels of students. However, at least we're now thinking about it, and knowing is, proverbially at least, half the battle . . .

       --Peter S. Cassidy, M.A.

TIP

"Good design keeps the user happy..."

                                          --Raymond Loewy, Designer

Over time, one thing I've observed about well-designed courses is that they strive to keep users comfortable by providing things in relatively simple ways. Two ways in particular include:

1. Using a relatively limited number of content items (3-6) in most units so that students are not overwhelmed.
2. Providing access to information or activities (e.g. slide shows, quizzes and even discussions) with links embedded in the text of key information (e.g. Lecture) pages right at points most relevant.

Happily, I have found that by combining the use of two relatively new features of the eCollege platform, the Content Connector and the Hide Content Item Option, I can achieve a bit of this sort of simple or elegant design much more easily than before. For example, in a given unit, I can, as before, create content items for a PowerPoint, a Threaded Discussion or a Practice Quiz. Using the Content Connector, I can also link to these items from the middle of a text page. However, I can now also hide these content items so students will not see them under the Unit button on the left. The effect is that the Unit does not appear to have so many items. Also, as the learner is reading a page, I can easily prompt him/her to do something at the moment s/he arrives at a particular point --e.g. take a "pop" quiz, view a slide show or discuss a specific topic. It allows for a bit of novelty while keeping things simple.

       --Edward H. Ladon, PhD