Is Technology Shortening Student Attention Spans?

I agree with different parts of both sides of this article. I thought Marcovitz made a really good point when he used the plant example. With educational technology, “allow students to explore rich worlds, growing generations of plants and animals in an instant, watching them die, changing the parameters, and then doing it all over again”. An important question that he asks is, “After seeing a flower bloom in a minute, who has the patience to wait for it to bloom in real time?”. This is why I think using technology in the classroom is all about balance and using the right kind of technology. I would probably not use this flower blooming simulation in my classroom. I would however, grow a real garden with my students and allow them to keep a garden journal in a blog. I think that technology does not need to be completely ignored because as David Son says: “Technology has the power to capture our children’s attention by making learning interactive and fun”. This is very true, but we cannot fully rely on technology to capture our student’s attention, we want to instill an intrinsic desire to learn, not simply get their attention long enough to do a lesson. We want them to be curious and patient enough to observe that flower as it grows in real time; that is teaching something that goes beyond the walls of the classroom, that is teaching them life skills.

When David Son described a perfect school that uses technology in a way to argue for his side, it actually had the opposite effect for me. That sounds terrible! “They tell a story using software, video and audio on a computer”. That can be a great differential tool, but every student needs to be able to get out a pencil and paper and write a good story. For me, it comes down to balance and using the right kind of technology at the right times.

I am curious to find out how many teachers are actually using technology in their classroom. If they are using it, what kind and how much? Is it mostly used in extremes? One teacher is anti-technology and another is all about it, so they use it everywhere? I think there should be a mix. How would the majority of teachers react to this article?