Muddling the Brain?

In reading,"Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture", Jenkins’ paper on digital media and learning, he makes some interesting statements on whether multitasking is actually good for students. Jenkins position suggests that multi-tasking might be a good thing. On page 35 he states, “Multi-tasking and attention should not be seen as oppositional forces. Rather, we should think of them as two complementary skills both strategically employed by the brain to intelligently manage short-term memory.”As a teacher, when students are multi-tasking it appears that they are off task and not paying attention. It does not seem to be effective and is rather annoying. In a blog for Wired Science, researchers have documented that multitasking leaves people feeling confused and their brain muddled even when they stop multitasking. multitasking muddles brains A Stanford study has confirmed what brain research has shown that the brain does better at thinking of one thing at a time. Paying a Mental Price When people try to multi-task they are paying a cognitive price. The brain does not remember as well. .