In the 21st century, people have the benefit of having multiple venues from which they can learn, including traditional school lectures, books, museums, apprenticeships, interactions with friends, and field trips, and from modern educational videos, podcasts, interactive computer programs, as well as synchronous and non-synchronous online education.
The flip side of easily available modern educational fare is that people face more distractions than ever from the same electronic devices that provide enhanced educational opportunities. These distractions can become a major impediment to learning.
Thus, the first part of this post provides four tips to improve learning during the electronics era.
Smartphones can easily distract students from studying because they provide access to texts from friends, enticing videos, social media channels that provide information related to the student's interests, and video games that offer greater pleasure than completing homework.
To enhance success, students can turn off their phone WiFi access (e.g., by putting it into airplane mode) and place their phones face down or in another room. If students need to consult friends about their homework via phone, this should be done during brief periods. Maintaining continual contact with friends through electronics while doing homework typically leads to a lot of social distractions that inhibit the learning process.
Because video games can be so engrossing, it is important that the student remains aware of the time allotted to this........