Education: A Distraction to Their Distractions

The Friday morning Student Success class was rolling along. Scott Nardo, the adviser connected to our class, was presenting the dilemma of distractions as we discussed time management. The students had brainstormed in small groups, sharing their most common distractions to studying.  Now they were reporting out to Scott who was madly writing on the whiteboard all of the typical culprits.  "Cell phones!...Netflix...Video games...parties....women! (snickers around the room)...pizza....Internet ...Facebook...jobs..." Once the contributions began to wane, we ended up with about thirty items on the board. Then Scott said, "Let's prioritize these distractions. Which ones would you be willing to give up?" 

Utter silence...blank faces.

Here is an issue we face as instructors working with the new generation: What we see as distractions they see as integral parts of their lives. When asked if he would be willing to turn off his cell phone to get uninterrupted sleep, one student replied, "I can't. It is my alarm clock." And yes, he admitted that, if the phone pinged at any time during the night, he would respond to the text before falling back to sleep. For whatever reason, the distractions can't (or won't) be shut off, put away, or ignored. Their lives are filled with entertainment and connections 24/7. When they were in high school, their time for these distractions might have been limited by high school schedules and parental guidance. Now that they are in college and looking at all of that free time in their schedules, is it any wonder that students report playing video games for twelve to twenty hours a week? To these students, college becomes the distraction. Annie Murphy Paul is quoted in the article as saying, "Multitasking while doing academic work — which is very, very common among young people — leads to spottier, shallower, less flexible learning" (Sullivan, NBC News).

My point is not to gripe. Rather, in light of this, we need to consider how the distractions impact our classrooms. In one sense, we are challenged to create assignments and teach in ways that reinforce the intrinsic value of learning. Students don't arrive on campus already knowing this. Rethinking our instructional modes is not an overwhelming task, but it does require that we be more mindful of how we utilize the time within and beyond the classroom. We cannot deliver the same content in the same manner as years past and assume that our students will get caught up in the spell of our enthusiasm. One quote I gleaned from a CCSSE presentation at the 2013 FYE conference speaks to this: "If a student has never experienced high levels of engagement in high school, how can we assume that all of a sudden they will be highly engaged in college?” Many of our students have misguided ideas about education in general and about college specifically. It is up to us to communicate the new expectations.

If there ever was a course that students would consider a distraction, it would be the Student Success class. We are asking them to take three credits out of their already busy schedule to study something that they think they already know how to do. During the first few weeks of class, that attitude accompanied many of the students as they slouched into their chairs and tried to surreptitiously check their phones. Not all the students, mind you--some came with a desperate hunger for ideas that would help them succeed in this new college environment. However, in either case, I knew I needed to make the course lively and practical, switching up activities, throwing in good videos, promoting self-reflection, etc., but as entertaining as that might be, it could never be enough. I think one of the most important things I do is the intentional infusion of the reasoning behind every activity. These students need to know that this class is worth their time above and beyond Netflix and video games. With each new class, attitudes are coming around because more and more students are getting the idea, not only about the value of this class, but about the value of choosing to devote time to their college education.

My point is these students do not know how to be college students. We need to "convince" them that time spent focused on their learning in college is worth the distraction from all of those other "distractions."  In high school, most of their learning took place within the walls of their classrooms; college is the opposite. They don't arrive on campus knowing that we expect most of the learning to occur on their own time and are shocked as the assignments and reading pile up for each class. One of my STU students told me he did not have time to do my assignments because he was already loaded up with work for other classes. When I looked at his weekly diary, he had studied 12 hours that week for five 3-credit classes. He had also played several ping pong games, viewed a couple of movies, and had time to hang out with his friends. His choices reflected the fact that he was not willing to give up any of the latter in order to study more for his classes. That is the lingering attitude coming onto our campus. Thus, part of our job has become helping students understand the culture of this society called college.

I wonder if in our attempt to "market" college we have given the wrong impression of the purpose of and commitment to a quality college education. No matter the answer to that, we instructors need to be diligent to prepare our students for the requirements for being successful not only in our specific classes, but for all their classes.