You mentioned you will evaluate yourself and choose a suitable task to start with. It seems a little bit subjective. My experience is that I will always start with the easiest task (for example, do some bench work) and leave the tough ones (write the manuscript) to be finished later. Then next day some new work come up and I start with the easy one again. Couple weeks later, the manuscript is still not finished. Have you ever had the same problem?

I also heard that focusing on one thing for a certain period of time, usually 30-45 minutes, and take break to fresh minds is a good strategy to keep your productivity. Multitasking won’t improve productivity at all.

Thanks for you post! I agree with Grace that it’s students’ choices to focus on what professors say or to play laptop. I wonder if we, as an instructors, can do something more than just reminding students. What if we give some penalties on the students caught doing thing irrelevant to the class?

Good Post!
Another limitation of MOOC in my mind is the lack of “Peer Pressure” or “Group Study” .
During my college life, I learned most from my classmates and the discussion with them. If MOOC can provide a better environment for discussion and interaction with others, students can enjoy more from the learning experience.

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It’s great to learn something about art studio from your post. I find the title very interesting. The interactions between these three words seems vital during the class and the students’ response might help the teachers to improve the teaching strategy.

Thanks for sharing. Sometimes I think multi tasking makes me less efficient because I got distracted. I would prefer to begin a to do list with the highest priority.

It’s a great guidance to follow when the subject comes to “diversity”. I really like the idea about dealing with it step by step as shown in your post. Normally we know a lot of people of the similar background as ourselves. Take part in volunteered activities would be a great opportunity to know more divers individuals.

Rudi – I too am a to-do list maker. Maybe a chronic one at that. It seemed like the articles specified that multitasking was doing more than one thing at the very same time. I learned that I am more of a “serial taker” as the Myth of Multitasking describes. My question is that since it is recommended to incorporate breaks and transitions in the classroom as this is beneficial for student learning, why can’t serial multitasking work in a similar way?

Just something interesting to share – one of my labmates and I are academic accountability buddies. As she expressed her feelings of being overwhelmed while attending her weekly therapy session, her therapist challenged her to try a new strategy. The therapist recommended making an academic priority list of only three things to complete in a single day; let me repeat JUST THREE THINGS. My labmate shared this with me as she said she thought I could benefit from it as well (lol true). Her and I have been doing this and sharing it with one another each morning. It has been very telling, even in just the first week. Some things I have picked up on are 1) while it is dependent on the tasks at hand, even accomplishing just three things can be a challenge 2) there are certain items that never get checked off because we continue to not neglect them over and over again 3) having to tell someone else that you didn’t get something done (and why) really does help with accountability, even personal accountability.

mmmm, I didn’t read Carr’s article, I had read some of the others and when I got there I was like, I have enough material for my blog… now I am curious and will probably read it, even with some spoilers, perhaps I will just skim through it? I think that concentration and mindfulness can really help, we just need to be willing to do our part and leave the distractions away, easier said than done, sure…but not impossible… when I have committed to work, I have been able to find good balance… with computer, you know everything is out there to get distracted, but make your life harder to look at thinks…download a web blocker app and put Facebook in there, or whatever else you constantly check… I still have hopes for newer generations, or perhaps is a matter of adapting, as long as we manage to survive and have a planet to live, then other behaviors can change… scary times nevertheless

Hi, so I think closing the laptop might help, but then you would have to say “phones off” as well, otherwise no difference, you can do the same things with your phone, under the table if needed… Perhaps the better question is, why would students do those activities instead of being active in class? If they ask questions that have been already addressed, I would not answer them again, that way hopefully they will be paying attention next time, otherwise the cycle would continue