Being Pro-active about Attention
For without it, learning is impossible.
ATTENTION IS THE MOST VALUABLE CURRENCY FOR LEARNING
And, mobile phones are the biggest distractions in the classrooms, and in workshop sessions.
If students are expected to give 100% attention in the class, we expect the same from the workshop participants 🙂
In my earlier post, I’ve written in details about the What, Why and How of managing attention. Be sure to check it out.
May I have Your Attention, Please?
Attention → Engagement → Learning Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now once said, “A short attention span makes all of your perceptions and relationships shallow and unsatisfying.” For our context, I would modify that quote as, “a short attention span makes your engagement and learning shallow and unsatisfying
Make your phones invisible.
This is the first rule I share in my classes, and in workshop sessions. Knowing that participants will lose their attention during the sessions, I have to be deliberate about it.
Sometimes the urge to check the notification is stronger than the agreed upon rules. Sometimes therefore I also ask them to “donate” their phones to me.
This is a risky move but I’m glad that they happily cooperated. Let me confess, no phones were harmed in the session.
Caution: These participants of this particular school, we have known them for over a year and thus we have built a strong relationship with them. Therefore they happily complied (except for a few ones).
So if you want to try it, be cautious that it might backfire too.