“But I’m multitasking!”
-What nearly every student tells me when I tell them to get off their MyBook and focus on their academic work.
“If you’re multitasking, why is it you’re not getting anything done?”
-A rough paraphrase of my usual response
Somehow all my students have been sold that multitasking is a wonderful thing and they should do it whenever they can. Did they learn this in middle school? Is it just a part of pop culture now?
In my opinion, multitasking is best when you don’t have much to accomplish in a large block of time. I love multitasking. When it comes down to getting some serious work done I turn off the twitter, shut down email, facebook, the aggregator, and the youtube. I might keep the tunes, but turn it to something low key and quiet.
The world of my students teaches them they should be doing 5 things at once. They don’t need that reinforced at school. Perhaps we should be teaching them focus.
I could be wrong. After all, I’m notoriously bad at focusing.
