Class Discussion

At the end of class we had a discussion I felt warranted more thought, and that was, should students be taught to multitask as that is the way the world works? Or should they be taught to concentrate and focus on one task at a time? Erma's point of view was that the world works that way and to a degree I tend to agree.

In the beginning of this class we were taught there are different types of writings and that when it came to grading the method of grading ought to be in sync with the type of writing. For instance, a formal or research essay should be graded for grammar, spelling, phrasing, and content, while a quick write or casual piece should be graded on a less stringent basis.

I feel that the same thing ought to be true of the skill of multi-tasking. Students should be taught when and how this skill is best used. Obviously its not all the time, but sometimes students should be encouraged to do more than one thing at once. When reading in depth academic articles I have noticed that I retain more when its done in quiet. I've tried to have the radio on or the tv in the background, but the level of informational intake is slower and tends to be vague. At the beginning of grad school I realized that my old reading habits wouldn't be successful when doing school readings, before school most of my reading was limited to child care books, popular magazines, or online news. The type of materials I read was in sync with the way I was reading, with the radio on, in the car, or with the TV on. Now that my materials had changed my methodology had to as well.

When would multi-tasking be appropriate? Of that I'm not sure, perhaps when studying languages and a student needs to listen to the language while writing or reading it. I'm sure that someone more skilled in teaching reading would know the answer to that. I know I don't have the answer every multi-tasking question but I'm sure that there is a place for everything somewhere in our teaching world.