"My attention span is ju.......check out that sweet car!"

As I ask myself the question/title; “Is Educational Technology Shortening Student Attention Spans?”My first reaction is to think YES. But upon actually reading I must say that both sides to this issue make valid points, if not valid facts. It seems as though David M. Marcovitz is annoyed with the influx of technology to the hands of our young people, and assumes that they will be left far behind if they don’t grasp it right away. This is illustrated with “Life moves fast, and if you don’t multitask, you can’t keep up with it” (Marcovitz, 2008). I find this idea somewhat applicable in the realm of technological-based professions, but it just isn’t that absolute in many other aspects of life. In that same breath, I feel he reaches a bit too far in another quote stating “After seeing the flower bloom in a minute, who has the patience to wait for it to bloom in real time?” (Marcovitz, 2008). I want to know who, at all, is watching the flower bloom in real time. I feel that people are thanking technology for showing them “time lapse” photography!!
The statements above are probably reasons enough why I agree with John David Son, who on the other hand, gives us positive feedback about the wave of technological savvy that students are showing in normal daily interactions. This is given to us in the valid opinion that, “Educational technology, if presented to students in a format that gives them freedom to express themselves, will engage our students far beyond a pencil and paper” (Son, 2008). I couldn’t agree more with this statement especially after seeing it work first-hand. I was helping tutor a course a few summers ago, where the quietest student with the worst written journal in the class, showed me his blog and how intellectual and well stated it was. It was amazing! This just goes to prove the fact that not all students learn alike or have the same set of skills as the classmate sitting next to them. In the last seven or eight weeks, we have been guided to internalize the theory of creating differentiated teaching strategies to grab the minds of all learners in all sorts of ways. Son pleads this through the statement: “School leaders, teachers, and other district personnel must believe that educational technology is the vehicle to engage our students and capture their minds while delivering the school’s instructional content.” (Son, 2008) Regrettably, no questions come to mind after reading this.