1)    Course syllabus:  what is your policy around technology in the classroom? (e.g. computer, cell phones, texting, etc.); do you also address usage before class, during breaks, or after class?

 

2)    Any other “policies/ground rules” for dealing with distraction?

 

 

 

3)    How do you set-up your room to control for distraction?  (e.g. facilitate latecomers, external noises, seating style)

4)In what ways do you address the topic of distraction and techno-usage (e.g. inform. overload, multi-tasking, saturation, addiction, etc.) either as a topic of conversation, an assignment, or a means for reflection (e.g. media logs)

 

 

5)    What practices do you use to enable students to “focus attention” or reflection prior to, during, or after a class assignment, exercise, lecture, discussion, etc. (e.g. minute of quiet reflection? Write a summary sentence?)

 

6) Do you use any contemplative practices in your classroom?

 

  

1) Jackson provides compelling evidence for the interplay between efficiency in our increasing     compressed lives (e.g. multi-tasking, hyper-scheduling in smaller units, Taylorism or new forms of the industrial revolution) and chaos, fragmentation, and loss of discourse.    Do you see evidence of this in the classroom, either in teaching or in student behaviors?  How does the larger infrastructure (e.g. administrative duties, assessment) sustain this interplay?

 

2) Our students are entering the work world (and even graduate school) with increasing expectations for states of distraction.  For example, employer’s expectations for multi-tasking,  24/7 access, state-of-the-art computer literacy, information overload, increased data processing, etc.  How do we balance preparation for their professional lives with a sense of empowerment and agency in making choices regarding technology and distraction?

 

 

3) Several researchers and social critics in this book point to the Millennial age group as the “redo generation” (just restart the computer, redo your Facebook, reinvent the self) and the erosion of personal relationships; replaced by surface, “networked individualism.”   In addition, the future suggests increased dependence on computers, the seduction of techno-modernistic competency, and expansion of computerized “services.”   As faculty, how are we to avoid simply sounding like Luddites (anti-techno), generational laggards, sounding the alarm--“the sky is falling” and/or simply privileging the face-to-face over the mediated world of our students?  In short, how to we insure our credibility as faculty/scholars and avoid ideological traps? 

 

4) What resonated for you in this book?  (E.g. reactions, question raised, skepticism).  Were there any chapters/comments that you thought were particularly relevant to teaching?