...Clay Shirky, who teaches the theory and practice of social media at New York University, talks about how he recently decided to impose a complete ban on laptops and other devices in his classroom. He found that the level of distraction from the use of laptops, tablets and mobile phones was becoming difficult to control. He notes that the quality of engagement and conversation in the class become much higher once the phones and tablets were put away. It was, in his words, “as if someone had let fresh air into the room.” He further describes the challenges faced by the teacher who is competing against an entire machinery — hardware and software — that is “designed to distract” because “attention is the substance that makes the whole consumer Internet go”...thehindu/features/education/deviceled-distraction/article6491938.ece
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 03:16:27 +0000