In chapter 2, Rosen describes the thirteen distinct traits of the iGeneration student. The third trait focused on their ability to constantly multitask. He describes students on face book, TV on, texting, searching the internet, and studying for an exam all at the same time. Do you feel the constant waves of multimedia, has or will create students with limited attention spans? Poor critical thinking skills? Or will it build out of the box thinkers?
I think children in the iGeneration being able to multitask is a positive thing. I think if anything it will help their attention span to be greater considering they will be used to doing several things at a time and still be focused on all of them at once. I also don't think they will lack critical thinking skills. They could possibly learn from the other forms of multimedia; it could help students when learning and could give them different ideas to work with. People from the iGeneration will think more out of the box. I believe being able to multitask with all different types of technology gives the people the advantage to have an open mind and it keeps their mind open to many options. This I believe will create out of the box thinkers; they wouldn't just be thinking one way, but they will always focus on the options they have available.
ReplyDeleteMichele,
DeleteI totally agree with you that being a multitasker is postive. I also think that through multitasking they open their mind and are able to think about many things at once. I also said that I think the students in this generation will become out of the box thinkers. This is because they have trained their mind to think about different things all at once. Later in life they will be able to apply this skill of multitasking and become very successful. In many professional jobs you have to be able to do more than one thing at a time and since they have grown up in a generation that encouraged them to do so, they will expand their minds, think more critically, and become out of the box thinkers.
After reading what Rosen has to say in chapter 2, I don’t think that multitasking will create students with limited attention spans or poor critical thinking skills. I think the constant waves of multimedia have actually made people become excellent multitasker’s. They have become so used to having to juggle numerous different types of media all at once that they have been able to find the balance with doing multiple things at once. The iGeneration of students have been born into a world were to succeed in life they have to be able to multitask successfully. Therefore, I think by being surrounded with vast amounts technology as far back as they can remember they don’t know how to not multitask.
ReplyDeleteThe example this chapter talked about how the students were bored only talking about the book they were reading is a great example of how students during this age only know how to multitask. They study for a big final while listening to music, texting, watching TV, and searching the internet. I personally think through all this multitasking the students have expanded their attention spans and can think critically about more than one topic at once. By mastering multitasking, this generation of students has actually become out of the box thinkers. This is because they have learned how to think about a bunch of different things all at once. The individuals in this generation have become creative thinkers and developed their attention spans and thinking skills more so than any other generation.
I think being able to multitask is an excellent skill and I do not feel that multi media is creating low attention spans. I do believe that it is creating no patience! If something takes longer than 1.5 seconds to download or open people will get very angry or aggervated and I have to admit I am one of those people. I feel that having all of this kind of multi media will create higher critical thinking and thinking outside of the box. The individuals in this generation can look up a topic and get every point of view about that topic so they can get many different perspectives compared to when I was in school and had only the point of view from an encyclopedia.
ReplyDeleteJen stewart