continuous partial attention...

I found a very well-written report from futurelab on emerging trends in the area of Social software and learning: An Opening Education report from Futurelab. It provides a good look at how we might understand social software for the classroom and how we might shift education in the direction of c-learning (c for community). The report describes aspects of the changing nature of learning in an information society, how we might educate for creativity and how we might rethink attention, space and identity. It ends with more questions than answers, but provides avenues for exploring some of the issues that strengthen education.

This portion in particular made me pause and think:

Linda Stone (2005), a former Microsoft vice president and human-computer interface expert coined a phrase ‘continuous partial attention’ to refer to a state of mental blurriness induced by information that is constantly pouring in from multiple sources. This state is perceived to be a result of ‘always on’ connectivity and seems to be manifesting itself in different ways. For example, in meetings of technically competent people (such as technical conferences) the back channel (i.e. any communication other than that from the podium) is used to enhance the fore channel. Participants are able to look up information that would be too tedious, basic, or digressive to ask about during a Q&A. They communicate with others to find out or let them know. They write the diary (blog) of the event as it is happening. It is almost the technological equivalent of it becoming acceptable to pass notes around the class behind the teacher’s back.

I am at the California Computer Using Educators Annual Conference in Palm Springs. Yesterday was a great day to discuss tech education issues with other tech educators like me. I was invited to a discussion with about 50 other educators regarding the new educational tech standards for students that ISTE is developing. This is where the "continuous partial attention" came to bear, at least with me.

There was so much great conversation developing at our table that it was difficult to focus at times. I felt that my mind would drift in and out, not because of distractions, but because of the stimulating conversations. It is interesting to think that this "drifting" could be a valuable experience and one that we could somehow use in education. Could it be a learning experience that we have yet to discover?