Originally written by kimberley seto on October 12, 2019
Digital Attention Span
How often do you find yourself getting caught up in a digital wormhole of different apps and websites where none are related to your task at hand? In this podcast, I look into how the increased used of mobile devices has impacted our abilities to stay focused. How do you think our attention spans will evolve as our use of mobile devices continue to develop?
Try your best to listen to the end!
Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Sneaky Snitch” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Hi Suzzie,
I actually posted this one as well, I must have missed your post initially, but I have taken it down. Anyway, although I am going to find another couple of posts, I thought I would share what I had posted as well (this was quite interesting, especially for these times).
I will admit, a week ago I may not have been drawn to this post, however just yesterday I was having a conversation about the attention span with online learning, particularly with our kindergarten students. Personally, I think that teachers of the younger grades are excellent judges of attention span, so it is interesting to see how they are adapting to online learning. Late in the podcast, Kimberley references a discussion how students need breaks, something that most if not all teachers realize, and in this example the speaker says about 3 short breaks in a 30-minute discussion. I am curious on how many people are doing this with online teaching, I know I have failed to do this. In the classroom I can gauge the students’ attention and change up what I am doing if I see it waning, yet online I do not have the ability to recognize this and I have even forgotten to put in a break in a prerecorded video. Another interesting fact that she discusses is that it is the interest level of the content being presented. Another factor I will be attempt to put into my online lessons. Finally, another aspect I enjoyed of this podcast is the dispelling of myths, such as our attention span is comparable to that of a goldfish. With teaching for 15 years I have heard of many different numbers and formulas for attention span and the content in this podcast has helped clarify my own ideas of attention span.
I chose Kimberley’s post as I felt it related to my earlier discussion of TikTok. As I have now created an account, I find myself scrolling through TikTok videos when I definitely should be doing other things, and I also find that the 15 second limit for TikToks keeps me engaged and scrolling. Her comments about some of the myths surrounding attention spans, and how mobile technologies are shrinking them, as well as some of the impacts being constantly connected make on us and our students are interesting and relevant.
As I create artefacts for my students to engage with, it is important that I consider what format, platform, and depth of information will hold their attention and help them to engage. She does a really good job of presenting HER information in a manner in which engaged my attention, and I believe there is more to explore there!
Suzzie