In 2001 Marc Prensky, founder of Games2Train and self-proclaimed "visionary and futurist," coined the meme "Digital Natives." Among other qualities, Prensky wrote that Digital Natives learn better if teachers present content "faster, less step-by-step, more in parallel, and with more random access" (p 4). Part of his rationale for making such an assertion is based on the idea of neuroplasticity. He thinks--because Digital Natives have spent countless hours surfing the Web while carrying on various e-conversations, listening to music, and maybe even studying--that plasticity has rendered their brains uniquely capable of learning in a multitasking environment. Is he right?
TIME magazine published an article titled "The Multitasking Generation" in March of 2006 that sheds some light on the question. In addition to presenting anthropological vingettes of Digital Natives and their relationship with technology, the article included interviews with several scientists who study multitasking. They seem to disagree with Prensky's assertion. For example, chief of cognitive neuroscience at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes Jordan Grafman says "Kids that are instant messaging while doing homework, playing games online and watching TV, I predict, aren't going to do well in the long run" (para 17). Another expert, David E. Meyer, director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan says "The toll in terms of slowdown (due to task switching and multitasking) is extremely large--amazingly so" (para 22). The article also mentions that Meyer often performs multitasking experiments with Digital Natives as his subjects, and he observes that they are perform poorly trying to multitask.
The article does not claim that people are incapable of multitasking. It reminds readers that people multitask frequently, when driving for example. In fact, it even points out that sometime in late adolescence and early adulthood, multitasking competence peaks. However, similar to previous posts on this page, the article explains that multitasking ability--even for Digital Natives--is limited. Performing multiple automated tasks like walking, talking, and keeping an eye out for danger is no problem. But when people try to perform multiple tasks that require serious thought--like learning--then bottlenecks form and information is lost. So, should teachers follow Prensky's advice? Probably not.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
I ran across this article the other day and thought you might be interested in it. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
ReplyDeleteIt is even more interesting if you read it with Diigo turned on and you can see the highlighting and conversation going on around it. Also, if you Google (ha ha) the article title it will pull up tons of replies from blogs, newspapers, ect.
I really appreciate a thoughtful post such as this. Not only does it lend credence to what I already suspected but it reminds me of a talk I saw Prensky give about a year and a half ago at a Handheld Learning conference. It seemed that PowerPoint required more multitasking than he could handle. I am not sure how he has reached such an idolized status by laying the native vs. immigrant groundwork.
ReplyDeleteI’ve always considered myself a multitasker but I’ve got hard evidence that multitasking = fast task switching not parallel processing. For example, when I looked up from a map and promptly smashed into that back of the stopped car in front of me, it was pretty obvious that my mind was on the map and not on the map and driving at the same time.
I do not think it is impossible to multitask (a musician singing, counting time and playing an instrument simultaneously) but I do not think most natives are acquiring those skills by riding a bike, text messaging and listening to an ipod at the same time.