“To do two things at once is to do neither.”
Publilius Syrus, Roman slave, first century B.C.

We’ve all heard the woes of students who start their homework after dinner and are still going strong at midnight. But are they truly working nonstop or are they getting distracted along the way? Does the computer that was switched on for research also display instant messages? Email? Facebook? If so, two hours of work can easily stretch into six.

While many people brag about their ability to multi-task or switch-task, it turns out that none of us, kids included, perform well when interrupted. That’s because our brains can only focus on one item at a time. In this age of tweets, texting, and social networking, the interruptions fly nonstop. We may be able to walk and talk at the same time, but when it comes to paying attention, our brains have limits.

But what about those who insist they’re wired for multitasking? Stanford researchers decided to find out what gives these folks their edge. What gift do they have that the rest of us inefficient, single-taskers are missing? “We kept looking for what they’re better at, and we didn’t find it,” said Eyal Ophir, the study’s lead author. In fact, they found that multitaskers pay a mental price, and in some cases perform worse than non-multitaskers, People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time.

Other task-switching research shows that doing more really means doing less. Dr. John Medina, author of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, explains that the part of our brain responsible for switching activities, what he calls the “attentional spotlight,” works as a sequential processor. This means, it can only focus on one task at a time. He claims that a person who is interrupted takes 50% longer to complete a task and makes 50% more errors. He shared the following anecdote, which may hit a little too close to home for many of today’s parents:

“Recently, I agreed to help the high-school son of a friend of mine with some homework, and I don’t think I will ever forget the experience. Eric had been working for about a half-hour on his laptop when I was ushered to his room. An iPod was dangling from his neck, the earbuds cranking out Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Green Day as his left hand reflexively tapped the backbeat. The laptop had at least 11 windows open, including two IM screens carrying simultaneous conversations with MySpace friends. Another window was busy downloading an image from Google. The window behind it had the results of some graphic he was altering for MySpace friend No. 2, and the one behind that held an old Pong game paused mid-ping. Buried in the middle of this activity was a word-processing program holding the contents of the paper for which I was to provide assistance. ‘The music helps me concentrate,’ Eric declared, taking a call on his cell phone.”

The task-switching problem is not limited to students. Workplace studies indicate that performing several duties at once reduces employee productivity. University of Michigan researcher David Meyer, Ph.D. [pdf], explains that in work settings, 20-40 percent of potential efficiency is lost due to task switching by workers “who are banging away on word processors at the same time they have to answer phones and talk to their co-workers or bosses.” Researchers at the University of California at Irvine found that workers returning to a task took an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to recover from interruptions and displayed significantly higher levels of stress, frustration, and mental effort.

Multitasking has also been shown to adversely affect how people learn. An article in The New Atlantis points to Russell Poldrack, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who found “that even if you learn while multitasking, that learning is less flexible and more specialized, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily.” Poldrack’s research demonstrates that people use different areas of the brain for learning and storing new information when they are distracted: brain scans of people who are distracted or multitasking show activity in the striatum, a region of the brain involved in learning new skills; brain scans of people who are not distracted show activity in the hippocampus, a region involved in storing and recalling information.

The solution for students who want to learn the lost art of paying attention is to focus on the task at hand. Turn off the distractions, make a plan, and concentrate on one activity at a time. Then reward yourself by powering back up. When done well, you’ll spend less overall time on your work, learn more, and have plenty of time leftover for fun.

Even before the California Senate approved a reform bill that would give parents greater control over their children’s’ education, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would sign the package into law “as soon as it hits my desk.” On January 7, he approved a provision known as the “parent trigger” (learn about the momentum behind this provision: LA-based Parent Revolution).

The parent trigger puts educational power into the hands of families. The law applies to schools in the third year or more of federal “program improvement” status, and makes the state eligible for as much as $700 million in federal funding under President Obama’s Race to the Top education initiative. If a majority of parents at an eligible school sign a petition, the district is required to make reforms.

Ellen Winn, Director of the Education Equity Project sums up the dire need for such reform:

“The grim reality is that the achievement gap in California is profound. In 2006, 42% of CA’s students scored proficient in English Language Arts, with startling sub-group break-downs: 27.4% proficient – Hispanic, 29% proficient – African American, 60.3% proficient – white, 64.3% proficient – Asian. The Education Trust West’s most recent analysis of the achievement gap in California found: “The racial and socioeconomic achievement gap exists across all subjects and remains largely unchanged over the past 7 years. For the huge numbers of low-income and minority students assigned to consistently failing schools, triggering any of these reforms will be the first possible step towards ensuring they receive a better education and all the increased opportunities we know accompany it.”

It’s that time of the year when high school and college students are asked to demonstrate what they have absorbed since the beginning of the semester. Midterms and finals test cumulative knowledge. And, since information from months earlier may be a bit hazy, the key to success lies in solid preparation.

Our 5 Steps to Exam Success article gives students a practical roadmap for how to effectively study for the big test.

A recent claim to friends, that my 18-year old self wouldn’t stand a chance of getting admitted to my alma mater today, turns out to be utter nonsense.

This according to Stanford University economist, Caroline M. Hoxby. In The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges [pdf], Hoxby reassures applicants that, “Typical college-going students in the U.S. should be unconcerned about rising selectivity. If anything, they should be concerned about falling selectivity, the phenomenon they will actually experience.”

In fact, at least 50 percent of colleges are substantially less selective now than they were in 1962 with only the top 10 percent, such as members of the Ivy League, Stanford, and Duke, demonstrating rising selectivity. So, perhaps that seemingly unattainable college is actually within reach.

“Youth who are most likely to need mentors are least likely to have them.”

Disadvantaged teens who get mentored are twice as likely to attend college. A new national study reveals the power of mentors, particularly those in the teaching profession:

• Adult mentors give teens a 50 percent greater likelihood of attending college
• Mentorship by a teacher nearly doubles the odds of attending college for disadvantaged students

“Potential is sometimes squashed by the social environment, and the data show that mentors can overcome those forces,” said Lance Erickson, a sociology professor at Brigham Young University and the study’s lead author. The information on more than 14,000 adolescents who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health shows less than half of disadvantaged students report having any adult mentor and only seven percent had a mentoring relationship with a teacher.

Mentors proved pivotal in whether students make the jump to college. For example, students whose parents do not have even a high school degree are normally 35 percent likely to enroll in college. The rate jumps to 66 percent when the youth considers one of their teachers to be a personal mentor. “Teacher-mentors close the college gap for disadvantaged kids [and] participants indicate that their mentors weren’t necessarily doing anything extraordinary, just being involved and treating the young person as an important human being,” adds Erickson.

President Obama’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign is a nationwide effort to move American middle and high school students to the top of the pack in science, technology, engineering & math (STEM) achievement over the next decade.

“Reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation is essential to meeting the challenges of this century,” said President Obama. “That’s why I am committed to making the improvement of STEM education over the next decade a national priority.”

The administration has identified three overarching priorities for STEM education:

• Increase STEM literacy so all students can think critically in science, math, engineering and technology.
• Improve the quality of math and science teaching so American students are no longer outperformed by those in other nationsI.
• Expand STEM education and career opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women and minorities.

Speaking to key STEM leaders and local students, President Obama announced a series of high-powered partnerships totaling over $260 million in support from leading companies, foundations, non-profits, and science and engineering societies dedicated to motivating and inspiring young people across America to excel in science and math.

Supporters include the MacArthur Foundation, Time Warner Cable, and Discovery Communications. With an investment of $7.5 million in mathematics and science education for preschoolers, Sesame Street, in partnership with PNC Bank, shows students are never to young to engage in STEM. Gary E. Knell, president and CEO of Sesame Workshop, explains,”Ensuring today’s children are prepared with the mathematics and science skills they need to compete in a global world must be a national priority.”

Like other types of performance anxiety, such as stage fright, math tests can lead to panic and cause the mind to go blank. Students overcome by math anxiety may feel a disabling frustration that can lead to full-fledged panic. Math anxiety is real, but can be brought under control with understanding and practice.

Prevent math fright by gaining perspective:

• Think of math as a foreign language that requires daily practice to master.
• Spend time working on math. Don’t just memorize or follow examples blindly.
• Be stubborn and tenacious about solving math “puzzles” correctly.
• Stay positive about your ability. Avoid negative self-talk. You can do math.
• Math is cumulative, so make sure you’re in the right level class for your experience.

Reduce math anxiety by improving your study habits:

• Don’t rush through math homework. Slow down and work at your own pace.
• When you get stuck, read your math textbook and refer to example problems.
• Ask for help from a teacher or tutor as soon as you need it.
• Practice math every day, even if no homework is assigned.
• Check each answer and try again if you make mistakes.
• Math is cumulative, so don’t avoid the work or fall behind.

Don’t fall for these age-old math myths. See how they are soundly debunked in this Platonic Realms MiniText.

Myth #1: Aptitude for math is inborn.
Myth #2: To be good at math you have to be good at calculating.
Myth #3: Math requires logic, not creativity.
Myth #4: In math, what’s important is getting the right answer.
Myth #5: Men are naturally better than women at mathematical thinking.

Mastering math is not about having a natural gift. Instead, learning math takes time and effort along with trial and error. As your knowledge and ability increase, so too will your confidence and test performance.

“Reimagining Learning,” the 2010 Digital Media and Learning Competition, was unveiled at the White House on November 23. Set to launch December 14, the $2 million competition sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, seeks proposals that will transform learning using digital media.

Applicants will focus on participatory learning experiences that incorporate the principles of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Participatory learning, as defined by the competition, is a form of learning connected to individual interests and passions, inherently social in nature, and occurring during hands-on, creative activities.

“Lifting American students from the middle to the top of the pack in STEM achievement over the next decade will not be attained by government alone,” said President Obama. “I applaud the substantial commitments made today by the leaders of companies, universities, foundations, non-profits and organizations representing millions of scientists, engineers, and teachers from across the country.”

The competition is open to designers, inventors, entrepreneurs, researchers, and others interested in building digital media experiences that help young people interact and explore in new and innovative ways.

Information about past winners and the current competition is available at www.dmlcompetition.net.

With all the hoopla about interactive math and science learning, who’s looking out for the poor humanities?

I found countless static websites to help students make sense of the classics, identify themes, or gain historical insight, but nothing interactive until I stumbled across Dr. Roger Travis. This Associate Professor in the Modern and Classical Languages department at the University of Connecticut uses online gaming as a course requirement when teaching the classics.

Dr. Travis, who first noticed a connection between modern video games and the classics while teaching Virgil’s Aeneid, suggests that the bards’ audiences were interactive with epic poems in much the same way that today’s video gamers interact with a software-generated adventure tale.

He has gone so far as to turn his course, “Classics in Ancient Mediterranian Studies” into an online class he affectionately refers to as, “gaming Homer.” Students are assigned to read Homer as well as secondary sources about Homer’s improvisational tradition. They then play video games to grasp that myth is not just something from 2,500 years ago.

“Like today’s gamers, the bards’ audiences didn’t know what was going to happen next, so they were immersed in the story and were interactive with it in a very real way,” Travis says. “The popular notion that video games are unique in their interactivity overlooks a tradition well over 2,000 years old.” Video games “bring back to life an essential part of the sort of storytelling to be found in the epic tradition of the Homeric bards.”

In her acclaimed novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery captivates with a stop-you-in-your-tracks answer to the question of why grammar matters.

To usher in this eloquent grammatical tirade, twelve-year old character, Paloma Jesse, writes Profound Thought No. 10 in her journal. In this entry, the youngster tells of a schoolmate who puts voice to the question on every student’s mind, “What’s the point of grammar?”

As the teacher huffs, “The point is to make us speak and write well,” Paloma’s blood boils. “I thought I would have a heart attack then and there. I have never heard anything so grossly inept.”

She, or rather Barbery, proceeds to defend the wondrous essence of grammar as if it were a smell or taste to be savored. “Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty. When you speak, or read, or write, you can tell if you’ve said or read or written a fine sentence. You can recognize a well-turned phrase or an elegant style. But when you are applying the rules of grammar skillfully, you ascend to another level of the beauty of language. When you use grammar you peel back the layers, to see how it is all put together, see it quite naked, in a way. And that’s where it becomes wonderful, because you say to yourself ‘Look how well-made this is, how well-constructed it is! How solid and ingenuous, rich and subtle.”

As Barbery illuminates the nuance of grammar, her reader is enticed to delight in the way beautifully crafted language, like a dazzling sunset or moving sonata, can enrich the senses and soul. When composed as “end in itself,” grammar is magically transformed from basic tool to work of art, “…it becomes obvious that grammar is an end in itself and not simply a means: it provides access to the structure and beauty of language, it’s not some trick to help people get by in society.”