I was giving a presentation to a group of students a few weeks ago about Thriving on Campus AND in Cyberspace, with the message that you can get more done in less time if you quit multitasking and take well-timed, brain-enhancing breaks. The students were fascinated by the brain exercises I gave them to prove…
At a presentation I recently gave in Atlanta to professionals who help students adjust to college, I was asked about taking notes during lecture. Some people recommend taking notes because it focuses your attention on extracting the main points. Other people argue against it, saying that writing down notes interferes with listening to what the…
A few days after did a call-in radio show on Wisconsin Public Radio with Larry Meiller, I got an email from someone who had heard the show and was interested in having me speak to her group. By the time I had a chance to email her back, I received this “away” message from her:
“Dear…
I gave a speech on Sunday at the 30th Annual Conference on the First Year Experience — an organization of professionals who help students adjust to the college experience. I was telling them about the workshops I’ve been giving to college students called “Thriving on Campus and in Cyberspace: Staying Connected While Succeeding in School,”…
I’m convinced this is a problem that can be solved only by changing attitudes about how the mind spends its time; no authority figure can force kids to wean themselves away, at least at times, from the technology that they’ve grown up with and love.
Recent statistics say that cell phones are now being used more frequently for data (e.g., texting, web surfing) than for phone calls. This has led me to think more and more about trends in interpersonal communication in general. Until recently, almost all communication was face-to-face. To be sure, earlier civilizations had smoke signals, carrier pigeons,…
On today’s Huffington Post, the headline for Obama’s commencement speech is: “Obama: iPad, Xbox Turn Information Into A ‘Distraction’.” In his speech he is quoted as saying:
“And with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment,…