Blog Reflection 1: The Multitasking Theory of the 2020s

The instructional theories of the 2020s and the 2030s will most likely be influenced by the fact that the current generation in our K-12 educational system is being trained from birth to be multitaskers. One need only spend a day in today’s classroom to see that students’ attentions are being pulled into many different directions at once. A student in any given classroom might be filling out a graphic organizer, listening to a teacher lecture, and checking his or her friends’ Facebook status updates all at the same time.

Granted, I am unaware of any current research that can accurately measure how much learning is actually going on in the minds of such students. Moreover, it must be assumed that most of the competing media swimming around their minds is not all geared towards learning the tasks put forth by their teachers. But should it be found that students who are multitasking in such a manner are performing comparably to their peers who are not multitasking, it would seem to fly in the face of many theories at the heart of cognitive load theory. Cognitive load theory postulates that learners have only so much space in our working memory that learners can devote towards learning new skills. If students are indeed learning while dealing with so many competing media or distractions, what are the implications of this in the future of instructional design?

With the advent of technology that is increasingly integrating Web 2.0 technologies with hand-held personal communication devices (such as the 3G Blackberries or iPhone) one must assume that students are being trained to be much more adept at multitasking compared to the students of their parents’ or grandparents’ generation. It will be interesting to see if cognitive-load theories change and adapt as the technologies that students use continue to evolve. I would guess that the development of such technologies will continue to accelerate as we move further into a post-industrial economic and educational model. Future instructional design theories will most likely take into account that learners of the 2020s and 2030s are increasingly able to integrate a variety of educational media into their learning environments. The challenge facing instructors in the future is how to extract the superfluous media streams our students crave while plugging in content that will aid in the learning process. Helping students to more effectively use their handheld devices to assist them with their learning (helping them learn the tasks we put before them) could prove to be a great boon to educators worldwide.

Upon further and more realistic reflection, I am confronted with two burning questions. Are students using these devices in class simply as a means to escape the drab realities of their classroom environments and, if that is true, would plugging in media pertinent to the learning tasks that they face eliminate the thrill of using such devices. Perhaps integrating their “toys” into the learning environment might push them into seeking alternative forms of distraction while in the classroom.