I think that there are a lot of educators who are good with ‘computer stuff’–building web pages, using and setting up traditional software, using e-mail etc–but who haven’t really explored web2.0 yet. I sat in on Gerry’s (commenter #1 here) presentation “How Does the 21st Century Teacher Help the Networked Student Learn?” on how to engage 21st century learners with web 2.0 tools. (Great presentation by the way!) On either side of me were educators who had only heard of a few of the tools that Gerry talked about (eg Flickr). But they were there and they were interested in learning about all of this. Hopefully the momentum will continue and we’ll see more and more educators leveraging all of these great tools.

I’ve had a look at your Tod blog and shuttered a bit to find my writing reproduced there as I certainly don’t want to be represented as being anti-Tod Maffin. I will add a comment on your site as well to clarify my position. At the same time I do really like that blogging allows for dissenting ideas and opinions to come together in debate. All this helps to push each and every one of us to think for ourselves.

As to the content, indeed we need to clarify what multi-tasking means. Tod did do that to some extent in that he talked about the synapses in the brain switching from one task to another. (Again, I was tweeting and notetaking and so probably missed the exact words, perhaps someone who was simply listening will remember it all verbatim). As Claire mentions, we should likely consider very different levels of multi-tasking. My other concern with multi-tasking would be that even though it may cause distraction and prevent reaching a state of what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi refers to as being in “flow” in some cases, such as with notetaking or other activities which might help with retention of information, various kinds of multi-tasking might help with some kinds of learning.

[Today Wikipedia defines "flow" as "the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity"]

Thanks again for commenting and contributing to the conversation.

But yes, let’s deal with the content of his speech regardless of who gave it.
Multi-tasking.
How was that defined?
As juggling and playing the accordion at the same time?
Or as going to school full time and being a single mother?
Unless you have a clear definition, then what’s the point of asking people to put up their hands?

As an educator, I think it is vital that you question the information you are given, and examine it closely.
I was looking for a more complete, almost a transcript of Tod’s remarks when I got to this page, but it’s alright that you simply share “impressions”.
However, I think a careful reading of his remarks will lead most anyone to agree that what Tod presents is indeed “walking the fine line between science, opinion, and entertainment”.

The YouTube clip is one I’m familiar with.
I will ask you if you really think you hold the cards when going into a job interview – ANY job interview.
What is Tod trying to say to these employers?
The candidate holds all the cards? Since when?
Even Tod doesn’t hold all the cards for ANY job.
The CBC doesn’t need him. Does he still work there?

I won’t belabour the point other than to say, you need to realize that you are just as smart and capable as any Tod Maffin, and would likely give a more responsible and factually based presentation if it were you up there, which it easily could be.

Thanks for this chance to contribute here, Betty.