By now, we are all familiar with the image of the stereotypically wired modern teenager: "While working recently on a paper for a class on state drug laws, a project that involved not just writing but searching the Web for information, Colleen checked her e-mail on a running basis and kept up to eight Instant Messenger screens running, engaging in bursts of online conversation with friends about weekend plans. All this while listening to Faith Hill on her MP3 player and burning a CD with songs from The Corrs, a new favorite band." (Hafner) This New York Times article originally ran in 2001; an updated version would probably factor in a cell phone and several windows to online social communities such as Myspace. While we marvel at these children's ability to manage so many tasks at once, we also wonder deep down what the implications may be for their learning.

Back in 2001, concerns already existed about the brain's ability to engage deeply in simultaneous multiple tasks: "Dr. (Todd E.) Feinberg, the author of "Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self" (Oxford, 2001), pointed out that the normal human brain cannot actually focus on more than one task simultaneously. Multitasking, he said, entails the rapid shifting of attention from one thing to the next." (Hafner) More recent research by Russell A. Poldrack, presented in the most recent issue of Middle Ground, suggests that however efficient one might be at acquiring information learned while multi-tasking, it is more difficult to use and apply this knowledge in new situations ("The Downside of Multi-tasking").

Middle Ground makes no actual recommendations in their article, merely presenting the results of the research. Still, the implications of these findings support our common sense practice during class time and in study hall, where social use of the Internet is disallowed. We do allow students to listen to music through headphones as long as it cannot be heard by others, knowing that some people truly think more efficiently under these conditions. In this manner, we are trying to set the students up for success in our goal of promoting deep, critical thinking.

Sources
"The Downside of Multi-tasking." Middle Ground 10.2 (2006): 47.

Foerde, K., Knowlton, B.J, & Poldrack, R.A. (2006). Modulation of competing memory systems by distraction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (published online August 1). http://www.poldracklab.org/Publications/index_html#skill