The core cultural competency that I chose to talk about was multitasking. The website, http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/the-literacies.php, defined multitasking as the following: the ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details. Being a good multitasker is required in our new media landscape - and that includes learning when it isn't good to multitask. I happen to agree with this definition. I once watched a short clip in a class about how MIT students think that multitasking is the best thing in the world for them. They said they needed to be constantly connected to everyone and everything even when in class. On student interviewed said that they would be in class taking notes, on their phone texting, sending emails on their computer and occasionally on facebook. That is too many things to do at once for me, I don't think I could handle doing all of those things together. The same student also said that when their professors ask the students to close the computers and put away the cell phones hardly anyone does. The clip also explained that multitasking is a terrible thing for your brain, because when you are trying to do more than a single thing at once you can confuse your own brain and it doesn't know exactly what to do.
In class so far I have multitasked at times, and watches as classmates have done the same. It is easy to get a little bit off task in class when you have a computer with internet right in front of you. I have to admit that I am guilty of checking or sending a few emails during class time while trying to pay attention. So far I haven't had any problems with it, but I try really hard not to distract myself with other things during class.
Another one of the Core Cultural Competencies that I have seen around a lot is networking. I mean isn't that exactly what facebook and twitter are to our generation these days? We all know without it though we might be lost. At times facebook becomes an easy distraction from homework or other productive things we tend to put off until a later time.
That's all for now :)
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI completely understand why you picked multitasking as your vocab word to focus on. In today's culture, people that can easily multitask are more likely to succeed, since so much of what we do is fast-paced. But I also think that can hinder us sometimes, because we can never focus or master just one thing. In our ED 106 class we talk about how a student must have active mental engagement to learn, but how can this happen when they are constantly being distracted and trying to balance activities?
And on your last paragraph, I couldn't agree more with our need to network. I feel like Drake stresses it so much since we are about to head into the workforce and our connections are what get us places.