None of the Tech-Savvy team are in for an Apple Watch… yet. However, the technology is intriguing. With my own personal revelation that turning off notifications on my smartphone for work has increased productivity and decreased stress, is there any merit to a device that actually adds more places for notifications and data to find me?
Manoush Zomorodi tackled this issue in last week’s episode of New Tech City from WYNC. She approaches the issue from the point of view that Apple knows that most of us hate our smartphones, because they are creating such distraction and disconnection from the world around us. It is worth a listen:
This begs a series of important questions in the classroom.
In a world where we are inviting devices in our classroom, either a school-owned device (1:1) or a student-own device (BYOD), are we also inviting incredible distraction into our classroom?
If adults struggle with the introduction of these devices, what chance do our emerging learners have at beating the distraction?
And the most important question in my mind… are we teaching our students how to deal with these new tools appropriately, either through modeling or direct instruction?
What are your thoughts on this issue?