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I'm distracted today (who isn't), so here are my notes on @LangOnCourse book Distracted. I usually argue with any book, which seems more fun than just saying that it was a great read, that I got a bunch new ideas out of it, and that it kept my attention until the very end. 1/12
A nice headline in these times: Distraction is a default state of mind, so we all need to work at getting attentive, and not feel too bad if we occasionally fail. As McEnroe commented about a tennis match: "If you feel like you're in The Zone, you just left it" 2/12
A surprising point for me: Many of the tips are just good teaching. Active learning strategies, switching things up, empathy, etc. This should not have been surprising, since ~90% of good teaching is about keeping attention. 3/12
The value affirmation (Miyake2010) was a shockingly easy one. It reminded me of @FlowerDarby and @BMDewsbury recommending a small essay from students at the beginning of class about themselves. 4/12
Re: student names: giving up at learning names at 100 is too modest; any HS teacher goes much beyond that! And I surely could memorize 100 words per week in French class. For me, roll calls with photo sheets work well, together with deliberately using names in discussions. 5/12
Re: situational vs personal curiosity: Good point to phrase the underlying *questions* of our class(guilty!!!). But pers. curiosity is important for teachers as well: Nerdy enthusiasm about the topic can be contagious ( @GeekyPedagogy). 6/12
Re: Signature Attention Activity: Jokes are mentioned in passing. I use jokes often as a way of lightening class mood and perhaps making me accessible. Would they also work to bring people back to the lecture? Should I emphasize an important point straight after? 7/12
While I agree with cutting a class into short modules, but there is also something to be said for deep thinking, and teaching how to do that. At least for upper level classes, is it wrong to do the occasional long puzzle? 8/12
Related, much learning happens during HW when students often do long hours (70% of learning time, and all active!). How can we help them not being distracted during that time? Break up HW in small daily chunks? Spill over enthusiasm from/good tie in with lecture? Study Hall?9/12
What are students thinking about when distracted? Just boredom/social media? Something real&external (ranging from food insecurity to COVID to romantic drama?) Something real & academic (the tests in the other classes). How can we acknowledge&alleviate? 10/12
For worries about other classes, would it help to have more intensive block courses? Summer students seem to do better than regular semester students. I always thought that was about cognitive load, but could it be about immersion, and fewer distractions? 11/12
Finally: Students zone out if they're lost, but also when they're bored. Especially in large Intro classes with heterogeneous populations, how do we serve all students, not just the middle of the pack? 12/12
