Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement

Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement
Author(s): Marie Evans Schmidt and Elizabeth A. Vandewater

Same Old, Same Old. How many times have you heard in the teacher’s lounge conversations about students’ shortened attention span and how the curriculum is dummied down because the students cannot retain information. Some teachers blame TV, video games, computers, iPods, cell phones, or the internet. Other teachers blame what was in the water that year. Whatever the reason, I was looking forward to reading this article and learning answers as to how media, attention, cognition and school achievement interrelates.

Every study that was discussed the findings were too close to call or inconclusive. For every study that proves media enhances learning there is a study that contradicts it. I agree with the authors that video games, interactive websites, and multimedia software programs benefits learning. They are new avenues and strategies to engage the digital native.

Before reading the article I had the preconceived notion that the reason for lack of interest, understanding, and achievement in the classroom was because the students are on digital overload. In my social studies curriculum we watch mini historical clips from United Streaming. Though the clips are filmed using primary source, I find them dry and uninteresting. After reading this article, I showed a short film from United Streaming discussing the Homestead Act in the late 1800’s. Looking around the room, I saw my students’ attention begin to wander and many of them weren’t watching the film any more. The next day I showed a different film with the same content but it was presented in an entirely different fashion. It was fast moving and in color. The film paralleled a reality survivor show. The student’s eyes were glued to the screen for 30 minutes. When I stopped the film we discussed the elements and differences between the two films. The zoom in technique, Salomon discussed in the article with regard to electronic media, attention and visual spatial skills did lead the students to internalize the material and allowed them to remember details that they couldn’t recall from the previously viewed film. After the first viewing the students couldn’t discuss what they had learned at all. However after the second film the students couldn’t wait to discuss what they had seen.

I was surprised with the review of research from the Institute of Education Sciences What Works Clearing House. They found that using interactive technology advances learning no more than traditional teaching techniques. What does matter is the ways the teachers choose to use, present and teach with technology. They discussed that the student’s use is only as good as the instruction they receive in how to use it. I thought about the technological advances and professional development we receive as teachers. It this research is true, why teachers aren’t receiving training on the integration of technology into the curriculum. Perhaps administrators need to rethink their school improvement days and incorporate training for teachers on the use of technology.