Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It

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Dr. James Lang has six recommendations in this podcast about how we can better understand student attention and how we can get their attention while we teach – even when teaching online. This important topic will help all of us become better teachers in challenging times.

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Dr. James Lang – Bio as Submitted

James M. Lang is a Professor of English and the Director of the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in Worcester, MA.

He is the author of six books, the most recent of which are Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It (Basic Books, 2020), Small Teaching Online: Applying Science in Online Classes (2019) Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2016), and Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty (Harvard University Press, 2013).

Lang writes a monthly column on teaching and learning for The Chronicle of Higher Education; his work has been appearing in the Chronicle since 1999.

He has conducted workshops on teaching for faculty at more than a hundred colleges or high schools in the US and abroad, and consulted for the United Nations on the development of teaching materials in ethics and integrity. He has a BA in English and Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, an MA in English from St. Louis University, and a Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University.

Dr. Lang’s Website: www.jamesmlang.com

Dr. Lang’s Twitter: @LangOnCourse

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Vicki Davis

Vicki Davis has been an educator and IT director in Georgia since 2002. Today, she also works as an instructional technology coach, staying side-by-side with active teachers and students so her work stays grounded in real classrooms.

She's a mom of three, wife of one, and loves talking about the wise, transformational use of technology for teaching and doing good in the world.

She has blogged at the Cool Cat Teacher Blog since 2005 and hosts the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast and Cool Cat Teacher Talk (radio, public access TV, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms), interviewing remarkable educators around the world. Vicki focuses on what unites us — a quest for truly remarkable, life-changing teaching and learning. The goal of her work is to provide actionable, encouraging, relevant ideas for teachers, grounded in truth and shared with love.

If you talk to Vicki for long, she'll encourage you to "Relate to Educate," to "innovate like a turtle," or to be "a remarkable teacher." She loves homemade sourdough bread and cinnamon rolls and runs half marathons with her sisters. You can usually find her laughing with her students or digging into a book.

Thank you for reading, sharing, and telling your friends about the work we do here! - Vicki

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1 comment

Alexis Clark February 28, 2021 - 5:05 pm

Along the lines of Dr. Lang,

He is completely right about if we, the teachers, are not engaged then what makes us think that our students will be? It is important to make the students feel heard and the way to do that in this online world is to make sure they KNOW they are being heard. Have students input what’s working and not working for them in the world of Zoom and then next time the class meets try to implement some ideas the students had to make the Zoom call better.