In Week3, the two cases study: Geek chorus(Guernsey, 2003) & On Audience Activities (Golub, 2004) related me back to many conference experience (the right photo is a APAEC 2007 held in Hwalian, Taiwan, a very typical academic conference, in a big lecture hall. photo by SPK in APAEC2007). I easily felt bored by passively receiving so much information from the presenters but for the courtesy concern, often times I sheepishly did some personal positive (write my papers )or negative distraction (drawing, or sent text message by cell phone).
(the left is a typical syndrome-yawning after 20-30 minutes listening a long speech; the right is what I called active participation-take notes or using digital camera for capturing important messages. photo by SPK in APAEC2007)
Allow the audience to use the IM or any similar technologies are quite controversial and equivocal. Some may argue it can enhance the active interaction among the audience and the presenters. It can build up a higher sense of participation. A shy person who hesitates to present personal ideas by articulation in the public, via the IM, usually can share ideas more freely and straight forward. On the other hand, the presenter might feel annoyed and being ignored by not getting much eye-to-eye and facet-to-face attention from the audience. S/he may also feel uncomfortable about how the others' comments and critics for the topic in the back channel.
(the left is the old type-distraction_reading your own book and pretend to be attentive to the speech ^___^""" photo by SPK in APAEC2007)
I found this situation is pretty similar in one of my class observation. Many students felt bored in passive learning like in a big lecture, sitting in the dark and listening to the endless bombarding of information. Some students just don’t care it. They come late and sit in the back corner, sleep, use laptop, check cell phone, play games, read press or review other courses’ textbook. Some students want to actively participate in by taking note or asking questions.
Some are stuck in the either way and complain about not so involving in the course and feel bored or uncomfortable for not knowing what have learned during the break. Some will complain about the lecture but these messages usually are shared among the class in students’ gossip. I can understand the communication gap between instructor and students. One wants to teach but for limited time concerns seems to overweight in the information delivering. The other wants to learn but not be motivated, they seek other ways to make their mind feel fun and awake.
Well…I need to add in other literatures to deepen my statement about the distraction in passive learning and the role technologies play in this above phenomena.
(the above is a more current type of distraction_checking the cell phone text message, ^+++^. photo by SPK in APAEC2007)
Another interesting topic, I gained from the week 3 reading is Multitasking. There are several perspectives to discuss about multitasking. One is multitasking and distraction. Many people have the intention to multitask in formal occasion such as attending lectures, academic conference, or at works. Perhaps, it technologies make the multitasking so obviously than before. In the old time, without these technologies, there are several ways to multitask such as day dream, read books, drawing, pass note or move body, or many other ways.
Another is multitasking and cognition process. Some people are really good at multitasking. Some are not. While dealing with new knowledge or difficult problem solving, a person would be more fully involved in one task. However, if the capacity in doing one thing is reaching the automaticity, then sh/e can easily does one thing with another at the same time. For example, in Neo-Piagetian view, it found that when children are more familiar in some type of problem solving and reach a certain level of automaticity. Their cognition for process new knowledge will allow more space for storage space and use less part for operating new knowledge (Driscoll, 2005). So you will find the younger children will be more attentive in thinking and slow in giving response to a question, while the older one can answer it more quickly and deal with new information at the same time.
Questions from Week Three Reading
Connection
If the need to connect is one of human being’s intrinsic/ innate natures, why do we need? From the interaction, connection, or feel be connected, what strength we gain from that? (Feeling not alone, mental support, stress release, a sense of belonging, identity, security, collaborate) If it’s possible the action of connection making can cause side effects, such as differentiate, separate (show favorites), compromise, conformity and so on. Why and how?
Distraction
Distraction seems to be a shared experience among students in a lecture time or listening to a presentation. New technologies allow students more choices to distraction. However, there are pros and cons of distraction. Under what circumstance/context/condition, a human mind tends to seek a distraction. Can you share a personal experience about positive and negative distraction to your learning?
Multitasking
While doing multitasking, how a person functions his/her information processing? Does the new generation, the so-called aged, act differently in their coding process compared to the previous generation? Can we learn how to multitask? Can we learn it more effectively and efficiently? Is multitasking one type of learning diversity/style?
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