I was sent this really interesting article on multi-tasking and how a professor of technology at NYU has now told his students no laptops, cell phones or tablets are allowed in his class. I found what he had to say really had some merit. I know from my own personal experience my fellow student’s laptops have distracted me during a class, especially when they are not doing anything class related but checking their email or shopping online.

I also found this interesting “Humans are incapable of ignoring surprising new information in our visual field, an effect that is strongest when the visual cue is slightly above and beside the area we’re focusing on. (Does that sound like the upper-right corner of a screen near you?)”. It was funny as I read that my Mac Mavericks OS popped up a notice about a new email in the upper-right hand corner of my screen and I had to fight my impulse to click on the notification.

Why I Just Asked My Students To Put Their Laptops Away by Clay Shirky

Here are some of the other studies he mentions in the article:

• Think You’re Multitasking? Think Again by Jon Hamilton
• No A 4 U: The relationship between multitasking and academic performance by Reynol Junco and Shelia R. Cotten
• Divided Attention: In an age of classroom multitasking, scholars probe the nature of learning and memory by David Glenn
• Media multitaskers pay mental price, Stanford study shows by Adam Gorlick
• Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers by Faria Sanaa, Tina Westonb, and Nicholas J. Cepeda

What do you think of what he has to say? Do you agree? Is this part of the “generational divide” and “crisis” Losh referenced?