Attenti….Wait, What Did You Say?
Civics of Tech Announcements
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by Michael Leonas, UNT doctoral student
It was 4:45pm on a Thursday as I was driving down Highway 380 towards Denton, TX. I was assigned to listen to a podcast for class featuring educational technology historian Larry Cuban and I figured this was the perfect opportunity to embrace the online conversation as I creeped down the road. Thanks, traffic. I pressed play and the introduction to the Have You Heard podcast began. “Have you heard?” “Have you heard?” It really caught my attention; as if I was ready to sit in on a gossip session or hear a good debate. As the podcast began, I only lasted 2 minutes. And by lasted, I mean 2 minutes of purposeful listening. That means 2 minutes of understanding what was being said before I checked my phone, day-dreamed, or was distracted by an external factor.
Wait, what did they just say? Let me reverse. I focused on the conversation a little bit harder, listening carefully at the point where I got distracted. Thanks again, traffic, you know how to distract me behind the wheel.
This time, I lasted 3 minutes…if it was 3 minutes. Was it? Darn it, let me rewind again.
The process of pressing play, listening to the conversation, observing distractions from the road and simply tuning-out became a vicious cycle the entire car-ride. What should have been a solid 32 minutes of podcast listening became a frustrating game of rewind and recollecting when I lost focus.
Let’s Focus.. for at least 8 seconds.
It is quite surprising how long our attention span lasts as human beings. According to a study by Microsoft in 2015, the average attention span online was 8 seconds (Bradbury, 2016). Yes, you read that correctly: 8 seconds. This finding was observed through participants spending time reading or browsing websites. At the completion of their cycle, the average time spent on a website was 8 seconds overall. As I think about my interactions on social media apps or websites, I find myself guilty of abiding by this timespan. When creating their model, TED Talks investigated the most appropriate time frame for a lecture or presentation to keep the attention from audience members. The producers found that the total length of a presentation should be no longer than 15 minutes to keep attention and focus (Bradbury, 2016). As Neil Postman notes in Technopoly, the Lincoln-Douglass debates of 1858 used to last for hours with candidates speaking for long stretches uninterrupted. They’d even take a break for a meal and return for more debate. So, why can’t I listen to a 32 minute podcast? Why is our attention span so short? Why are we giving into this “short” span of time? The answer to these questions could be quite simple: the Net has changed the way we think.
Our daily interactions with social media applications, websites, email, virtual meetings & interactions, have all contributed to our short attention spans. As Nicolas Carr shared in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” the Net was “chipping away [his] capacity for concentration and contemplation” (Carr, 2008, p. 90). Carr shares throughout his article that the Net is the leading contributor to humans’ shorter attention spans, the need for convenience, and has become the medium for all of our intellectual technologies.
Purposeful Listening
Neil Postman (1992) argued that humans are adapting to a technologically-driven society that he calls a “Technopoly.” Everyone recognizes that the use of technology is the integral activity of how we communicate, participate, and live as everyday citizens in our society. But Postman argued that the tools we use as humans become our culture. Because of our role in this “technopoly,” our senses evolve with the dominant mediums of the era. This is especially influential on our listening, speaking, and vision.
When listening to a podcast, we rely on our listening skills to receive the dialogue and decode the messages. According to Paquin (2022), we “listen at a 25% comprehension rate”, if we “listen at 125-250 words per minute,” but we process words much faster. Most of the knowledge we gain is through auditory senses. However, Paquin discusses the concept of “noise” that interrupts our learning and listening process. Is listening best used when learning? I define learning here as the process of taking in knowledge, synthesizing it, and being able to explain it. For example, I prefer printed text. There is something about reading a line of text and annotating chosen words when reading a dialogue or information. Maybe it is the opportunity to physically highlight words or underline them with a pencil. Maybe it's the action of using a bookmark to pause where I am reading, instead of pressing the “pause button” on the web browser. In reality, it is the opportunity to read at my own pace without having to keep up with the pace of a podcast.
Carr wrote his article, and later The Shallows book, to figure out why his attention span for reading was deteriorating. I noticed that I struggled to concentrate on a podcast. This points to a bigger lesson: We need to reflect on how we learn via different mediums and also examine the quality of those experiences. Psst. Did you make it past 8 seconds, yet?
Find What Works For Your Learning or Leisure
Postman (1992) would argue that we need to take back control of our own actions instead of allowing technology to take control over us. He would also argue that we need to define learning on our own terms instead of allowing technology to decide our learning for us. Carr (2008) would agree with Postman as he found himself finding it harder to read printed texts because of the effects of the Web. Carr would also say that the way he processes information is the way the Net presents it. He shares: “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it:in a swiftly moving stream of particles (p. 90). However, with our attention-spans being affected by our everyday use of the Internet, we need to find some alternatives in our listening and learning, especially if you need to take notes for that podcast.
This lesson also translates to the educational technologies we use. We learn in relation to technology. Some EdTech apps provide opportunities to manipulate Mp3s and Mp4s. The apps can help you create a transcript for a podcast, creatively create closed captioning, adjust speed of the track, and crop/splice the file. The features allow you to create your learning to your personal needs. Here are some suggestions I created that work for myself and possibly for you.
Use a transcript to follow when listening to a podcast. I can take control of my learning by adding reading print to the podcast experience. I find myself focused on the dialogue of the podcast when I have text to reference. This allows me to keep on track with the dialogue as I scope the sentences. This also provides opportunities to pause when listening. If I see a part of the conversation changing topics, I can pause at the end of this sentence. I can then write down the time of where this pause occurs. This allows me to focus on shorter conversations than ponder about how the next 30 minutes will occur. This also prevents day-dreaming and/or distractions occurring sooner. Let’s be real, if the dialogue is not interesting or engaging, I am going to end up day-dreaming about some of my favorite foods. However, day-dreaming about pizza, tacos, and Whataburger is not going to be as evident if I have text to read and analyze as I listen along to a podcast. Podsqueeze shares that having a transcript also allows access to your experience and learning. A transcript allows you to skim, skip, or review segments simply through reading. This is also more convenient than battling that small circle to move back and forth. The point of listening to a podcast is to observe a conversation. However, if our listening skills are distracted, then we need to accommodate our senses so we can understand the dialogue. A transcript can accommodate my needs and maybe yours too. Listening to podcasts works for some people, but not for me, unless I center my listening on a transcript of the episode. Just don’t look at the transcript when behind the wheel - even if you are in traffic.
Raising Media Form Consciousness and Making Choices
What are we to do? One option is to raise our consciousness about media forms and make intentional decisions about how we use them. For example, we can make a choice to use closed captioning when watching a YouTube video or film to read along the presentation. Spotify, Rev and ListenNotes are online resources that help create podcast transcripts if the author does not provide one, but the newest iOS update now embeds transcripts in the Podcast app on Apple devices too. This function follows the same concept as using a transcript. The closed captioning when watching a YouTube video or film allows you to pace along with the conversation or dialogue. Such decisions offer benefits and drawbacks. At times during a video or film, I may be distracted by what is going on visually in the scene, so I may disregard the conversation. By following along the text, I am able to focus on the dialogue and not allow the visual effects to distract me from the conversation. Of course, this pulls me from an important part of screen storytelling: the visuals.
According to a study by Stritto and Linder (2017), a majority of students who have the option to use the closed-captioning in media do so regardless of disability. In the same study, 90% of those who used closed captioning agreed that it aided them in learning from the medium. In this case, a YouTube video. Stritto and Linder (2017) implied that “comprehension, accuracy, engagement, and retention” were improved due to the use of closed captioning. So, click that CC icon if you wish to use this accommodation, but also ensure it aligns with your goals. We can teach students to recognize these trade-offs and make these same types of choices.
Another option is to place yourself in an environment that supports the media form. Listening to a podcast in traffic was not the best environment for me. Typically, I use car drives as a time to reflect or listen to music. For others, this may be an appropriate environment to focus on a dialogue. Reading a transcript behind the wheel is not a safe option. AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) shares that by controlling your place and environment, it allows you to better control your learning. This modality is connected to an “integrated learning experience” for yourself and students.
Did you hear? Did you hear? As we embrace the ever-constantly changing “technopoly” in our society, we need to find adjustments and accommodations to allow us to control our own learning. This will require self-reflection, trial-and-error, and perhaps observing other people learn. We want our time to be well used.
References
Automate Podcast Content Creation. Podsqueeze. (n.d.). https://podsqueeze.com/
AVID/ closing the Opportunity Gap in Education. AVID/ Closing the Opportunity Gap in Education (n.d.). https://www.avid.org/
Berkshire, J. & Schneider, J. (Hosts). (2016-present). Have Your Heard [Audio podcast]. SoundCloud. https://soundcloud.com/haveyouheardpodcast
Bradbury, N. (2016). “Attention span during lecture: 8 seconds, 10 minutes, or more?” The American Physiological Society, 40(1), 509-513. doi:10.1152/advan.00109.2016.
Carr, N. (2008). “Is Google making us stupid?” The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/
Paquin, N. (2022, December 1). (really) listening & (really) learning. Points of Light. https://www.pointsoflight.org/blog/really-listening-really-learning/
Postman, N. (1993). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. Knopf.