Digitalise this!

Multitasking seems to be the norm nowadays. Our students talk to each other while writing/copying something from the board. As a teacher, I get angry when that happens because I don't know how to get deeper understanding of something while being distracted by another activity. In my previous post I mentioned that "as much as I believe that we can learn successfully while occasionally watching TV or listening to music, I have my doubts about successful acquisition of knowledge when subjected to constant distractions of the internet". It seems that all our life is based on "continuous partial attention" (Friedman, 2006). Young people nowadays are constantly wired. Their belief is that they can pay attention to many things at the same time: driving while talking on the phone or texting, doing their homework while chatting to somebody on the internet. But is it true though? There have been quite a few studies done to test it. In one study, students reported that wh

     It does not come as a surprise that with computers being so widespread at homes as well as at schools teachers, and especially language teachers, must consider the implications of these devices for learning and teaching. I still remember the time when I started looking for a job as an English teacher, and many universities in Poland were looking for teachers with experience in CALL. Of course, at that time I was not even familiar with the acronym, neither knew anything about Computer Assisted Language Learning. In 1990s, computers were still somewhat of a novelty in Polish schools. Our students were still at awe about the first chatrooms. I still remember my first chatroom experience and how weird it was imagining I am talking to someone from Barbados or India. I remember the first question asked of me: a/s/l (age/sex/location). I could not grasp the idea of chatting in real time to someone who was thousands of miles away! I still remember printing out those chats! Before I knew i