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I have a tendency to multi-task, particularly information and communication. For example, at the moment I am listening to my wife's random comments as I shift between Tweetdeck, and responding to this article. It is better if I concentrate on creative activities like responding to this article. A momentary distraction, such as explaining the nature of my activity to my wife, will disrupt the flow of thought. I write a little. When I was a young father I learned to do this as I watched my children. As time passed, I lost that knack. Likely Zastrow is focussed on this form of multi-tasking and I think the point is well taken. I have silent reading each day so my students can mono-task reading.

We are champions of multi-tasking in schools and the school day distracts. It takes me almost half an hour to fully immerse myself in creative writing. Two uninterrupted hours become very productive. We never offer students this opportunity. We fragment their days and shift them by the clock. I am constantly either throwing out my schedule or dragging young people away from some problem or project in which they have become deeply engaged. It always feels wrong. I am discouraged that our division's one high school using the copernican system (two classes each term) ended the program. It made sense to me.

A case might be made for multi-tasking. People can immerse themselves for different periods of time. Stepping away from a problem for a fragment of time can serve to moderate stress. Many tasks simply do not warrant mono-tasking. Certainly education has examples of this. It probably depends on the primary activity of importance.

just take things slowly and one at a time that will make more efficient and productive great site really informative i learned a lot great stuff keep it up

Look at THIS:

http://hammie-hammiesays.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-want-your-iphone.html

Isn't that great? On the other hand, I troll my son's facebook account and can tell you who is updating during math class and threatening ex-friends for stealing boyfriends. Drama! They used to pass notes for that kind of thing, but now little do these tweenies know that oldsters like me know EVERYTHING about them. Bwa ha haaaaa.

PS Did you read about the principal who urged parents not to allow their kids to have facebook?

Alan--I suspect you're right.  Sometimes we have to multi-task. Sometimes we have to mono-task. We have to know how to do both well. I find I have to multi-task a great deal in my job, and sometimes it seems harder than it ever was to focus on one thing for an expended period of time. That, it seems to me, is a loss.

"Essays"--thanks for the comment. Sorry I deleted your link to the free essay mill. That sort of thing kind of gets under educators' skin, you see....

Mrs. C--Great blog post. Thanks for the link. Thanks for reminding me about the more positive aspects of Facebook--secret monitoring! I haven't heard about the principal who has urged parents to prohibit Facebook, but I'm not surprised that it would happen somewhere. Seems like a fruitless attempt--and kids will have to learn to use it responsibly and for good. It doesn't make sense to banish social networking. (But then again, I'm not in that principal's shoes!)

Here's the link on the principal:

http://wcbstv.com/technology/facebook.social.networking.2.1662565.html