[iDC] partial vs. peripheral attention

[Tiffany Holmes]

Hi all.  The problem of continuous partial attention (CPA) is  
growing.  I'm particularly interested in how what might seem like  
productive multi-tasking could affect learning and comprehension in  
young people...a problem that Brian Holmes pointed out this am.

There was a great NYT magazine article (Nov 26, 2006, link: http:// 
www.kipp.org/08/pressdetail.cfm?a=291) called "What it takes to make  
a student."  In it, Paul Tough visits a highly successful charter  
school in inner city NYC where a new technique for eliminating CPA is  
working.

Students at the KIPP charter schools follow a system for learning  
invented by the founders, David Levin and Michael Feinberg, called  
SLANT.  The acronym sums up the appropriate classroom behavior: sit  
up, listen, ask questions, nod and track the speaker with their  
eyes.  The following is quoted from Tough's article:

"Levin’s contention is that Americans of a certain background learn  
these methods for taking in information early on and employ them  
instinctively. KIPP students, he says, need to be taught the methods  
explicitly. And so it is a little unnerving to stand at the front of  
a KIPP class; every eye is on you. When a student speaks, every head  
swivels to watch her. To anyone raised in the principles of  
progressive education, the uniformity and discipline in KIPP  
classrooms can be off-putting. But the kids I spoke to said they use  
the Slant method not because they fear they will be punished  
otherwise but because it works: it helps them to learn. (They may  
also like the feeling of having their classmates’ undivided attention  
when they ask or answer a question.) When Levin asked the music class  
to demonstrate the opposite of Slanting — “Give us the normal school  
look,” he said — the students, in unison, all started goofing off,  
staring into space and slouching. Middle-class Americans know  
intuitively that “good behavior” is mostly a game with established  
rules; the KIPP students seemed to be experiencing the pleasure of  
being let in on a joke."

Levin and Feinberg's SLANT method works on inner-city elementary and  
middle school students but what about for college students and  
academics?  Have we forgotten how to be polite--how to fully focus on  
a lecture?  Or are standards of "politeness" changing based on the  
exploding market for peripheral mobile communication devices?  Attend  
any academic conference with a wireless network and ask yourself how  
many people in the audience are following the discussion 100%.

Closing the laptop lid and trying out the SLANT method might be  
educational for us older folk as well as the younger ones.

Cheers, Tiff
____________________________________
Tiffany Holmes, Associate Professor
Chair, Department of Art and Technology Studies
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
112 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60603
Phone: 312-345-3760,  Fax: 312-345-3565
Mobile: 312-493-0302
http://www.tiffanyholmes.com



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