Week 3: Do I Have Your Attention?

Now that everyone has created a Twitter account, I’ve added you to a Twitter list for our class, so you can see (and hopefully follow) each other. A few of you have made your Twitter accounts private, but that will hinder your ability to participate in our class’s conversations on Twitter, so I would encourage you to make your tweets public. If you’re new to Twitter, here are a few articles that will help you get started:

A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter
10 Must-Learn Lessons for Twitter Newbies
Twitter Basics (the company’s official support page)

We’ll check in on our Twitter adventures on Monday, so here’s a mini assignment to complete this weekend: follow at least five new people who regularly tweet on a particular topic. For instance, if you want to use Twitter to keep up with campus news and events, follow a few of the accounts on the university’s list. Or use a hashtag search to find out who is regularly tweeting about your favorite sport, television show, band, etc. And remember, when you tweet about something related to our class, be sure to use the class hashtag: #engl3844

Next week, our class discussions will focus on the digital literacy of “attention” and our workshop sessions will help you refine your video narratives. Here are a few more details for each day:

Before you come to class on Monday, please read Chapter 1 (pp. 35–75) in Howard Rheingold’s Net Smart. Following the pattern we established last week, leave a comment on this post that contains a passage from the chapter that you want to discuss in class, and tell us why you think this passage is important. (Leave your comment no later than Sunday night, and if it’s relevant, connect your comment to one of your classmate’s comments.) Finally, please spend some time this weekend working on your storyboards for your video narrative, then bring your completed storyboards (however rough they might be) to class on Monday. If you need a little more inspiration as you think about your video, I have compiled a list a sample video narratives on the Resources page.
On Wednesday, we will spend most of class in workshop mode, reviewing several different hardware and software tools that you can use to create your video narrative. In order for you to choose a specific tool (or set of tools) for your project, you’ll need to have a fairly solid idea about how you plan to tell your story, so your homework for Wednesday is to write a draft of your voiceover script and bring it to class. (If you’re worried about the length of your script, try timing yourself as you reading it out loud.)

If you have questions about these plans, or if you need help with your literacy narrative, please come see me during office hours (Tuesday 1–4 and Wednesday 9–12) or send me an email. (Big hint: it’s much less painful to have me look at your draft during office hours than to be surprised by my evaluation of your project after you turn it in.)

12 Responses to "Week 3: Do I Have Your Attention?"

Sangji says:

February 3, 2013 at 2:42 pm

I thought it was interesting when Howard Rheingold wrote “about 2.4% of the college students in their studies were able to talk on the telephone while operating an automobile driving simulator- without degraded performance” (p. 37).

I found this surprising because 2.4% is an extremely low number, yet talking on the phone or texting while driving is something that we do often. It made me realize that we probably aren’t as good at multitasking as we may think, wether it’s while we’re driving or studying or doing other tasks.
Ron Schuetz says:

February 3, 2013 at 3:35 pm

I thought it was interesting when Rheingold writes, “the phenomenon, known as ‘selective inattention,’ is dramatically illustrated by the online video [link below] of the ‘awareness test’…”(p. 42).

I found this to be an interesting experiment, and concept. It is very similar to the idea of distraction and probably a contributing factor to the discussion at the beginning of the chapter, where he discusses his classroom and the students multitasking. Is it really multitasking, or is it selective inattention?

Link to experiment video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
I know since we all read the paragraph and it describes what happens, we will all “pass”. but still interesting to look at.
Beth says:

February 3, 2013 at 3:48 pm

I enjoyed the quote from the Huffington Post that talks about “how to switch from managing time to managing attention” on page 74. My dad encourages me to make to-do lists, but I’ve never thought of listing my intentions and realistic expectations of what to do each day.
David says:

February 3, 2013 at 4:49 pm

On pages 40 and 41(ish), Rheingold tells the story of his colleague Cathy Davidson from Duke University. Davidson speaks about exercising conscious decision making and I found this interesting because of how often we do things while think about something else. It is disturbing to think about how many things are running through my mind while I am driving and how dangerous it coule be, not only for myself, but for others.

“Davidson told this story to emphasize the need to exercise conscious decision making in order to avoid the burning teakettle, dogs in the road, or online distraction:

Rheingold, Howard; Weeks, Anthony (2012-02-24). Net Smart (p. 41). MIT Press. Kindle Edition.”
Jonathan says:

February 3, 2013 at 5:36 pm

“What we’re experiencing (…) is, in a metaphorical sense, a reversal of the early trajectory of civilization: we are evolving from being cultivators of personal knowledge to being hunters and gatherers in the electronic data forest” (page 52).

This passage is of importance in relation to the belief that the digital era is more detrimental to us than beneficial. The speaker, Carr, believes that “digital networks (…) cause us to develop habits that ultimately harm our brains and damage culture[,]” but I would respond to his argument by using the same analogy that he utilizes to aid his own (page 51).

We–as a civilization–are the ones who planted the seeds of this digital forest and have watched it grow from a mere idea into an actualization. We have created and formed for ourselves a means by which we no longer have to be confined within an entirely personal range of knowledge and are now capable of hunting and gathering in the digital expanse of our forest for the knowledge which we wish to attain. Granted, there are those who will abuse this resource and others who will not fully utilize the opportunities it creates for them, but it nevertheless remains a resource which benefits civilization via the dispersal of ideas and information. Now, if we could only get everyone to play nicely in the metaphorical sandbox of our metaphorical forest…
Catherine says:

February 3, 2013 at 6:53 pm

I was interested in the same passage as Sangji. I also realized while reading about multitasking that I myself was multitasking (reading, texting, and listening to music). We’ve become so used to doing multiple activities at once that we don’t even realize we’re doing it.
Jordan says:

February 4, 2013 at 12:38 am

I enjoyed the mini experiment that Rheingold but on in his class in the beginning of the year. Where he told a classroom of 50 students that only 5 could have their laptops open at a single time. This really would allow us (as students) to become aware of what our attention is really on. Also it would be nerve racking to know that the rest of your classmates would be watching your every move. Our attention span as students is very slim, the use of laptops is usually for personal use and rarely for educational purposes. Every student should be aware of where our attention is focused and how easily it can change.
1. Jordan says:
  
  February 4, 2013 at 12:39 am
  
  also this was on page 36
Brittany says:

February 4, 2013 at 11:16 am

“If you want to make mindful use of media, however, you’ll need to train yourself to recognize and withdraw attention from activities unrelated to your intended goal of the moment (43).”

This is so true, many times I open my computer to do school work and the next thing I know I have typed in Facebook on my search bar and have Pandora playing. Some people put blocks on certain sites so they can’t access them no matter what. It’s hard to train yourself not to use certain forms of media at the same time that you are doing research for a class or trying to write a paper. In the end this “multi tasking” just leads to a waste of time, distraction, and more addiction to media.
Curtis Stanford says:

February 4, 2013 at 1:44 pm

I enjoyed the section about whether the Internet is making us stupid (or not). Particularly, Plato’s quote in which he references Theuth as discussing writing and how it has externalized our memories and prevents us from using ourselves as resources.

This made me think about a concept we discussed in my Living Through Technology capstone course–the idea that we are degrading our short term memories. Since so much knowledge is available conveniently and for free (via the Internet) we don’t have the need to internalize and retain information in the way that past generations needed to. If we need to know something, we simply google it or look it up on Wikipedia.

I think the advantage of this is that we potentially free up our brain’s maximum processing power to focus on higher tasks, those of greater importance than mnemonic memorization of lists and trivia. The disadvantage of relying on the Internet as our memory bank is that our brain as a muscle isn’t exercised as thoroughly and as such our technical capabilities suffer. While this may devalue us as individual units, an argument can be made in favor of an evolution toward a collective conscious that can be shared and manipulated through a tangible resource such as the Internet.

Sorry this is late. Forgot about the Sunday deadline.
Becca says:

February 5, 2013 at 9:35 pm

“From a practical standpoint, our research suggests that when faced with long tasks (such as studying for a final exam or doing your taxes), it is best to impose brief breaks on yourself. Brief mental breaks will actually help you stayed focused on your tasks!”

This quote stood out to me as a college student in the midst of a technologically crazed generation. I have had friends who will actually get their buddy to change their Facebook passwords for them during exam week so that they will not check it every five minutes while studying for finals. When the week is over they get the new password and log back on. This quote is saying that the Facebook distraction may actually help these students to study. It would be an interesting experiment especially since Facebook can sometimes suck you in for an hour without knowing it and the quote says “a brief mental break.” Well, what kind of break? Is Facebook an inappropriate one?
1. Becca says:
  
  February 5, 2013 at 9:35 pm
  
  Page 45 on the Kindle

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