Is it possible to listen to Kutless on an mp3 player while completing an online math assignment and texting a cousin in Poughkeepsie? If you ask anyone born with a silver mouse in hand, it's not only possible, it can be done effectively. Not so, say the experts.

While multitasking may be cool and so 21st century, what we call multitasking is, in most cases, just switching from one task to another, avoiding a collision course of information. Most of us can't do it very well, as evidenced by the incidence of automobile accidents caused by texting drivers. In fact, brain research indicates that distractions can change the way people learn, especially as it affects using that knowledge later on.

Work conducted at Stanford University and reported in an article by Constance Holden in ScienceNOW Daily News suggests that "Cognitive performance declines when people try to pay attention to many media channels at once."

Not surprisingly, our students are tuning in and out depending on the attractiveness of what else is happening around them.

In an age when more and more students in Christian schools are simultaneously working on their computer, social networking, texting, or talking on their smart phones, and listening to music, the implications are frightening. Not only are they not learning or working at capacity, they are actually fooling themselves into thinking they're good at this multitasking.

Like it or not, multitasking is present -- in our lives, the classrooms of your Christian school, and the entire workplace. Instead of trying to convince students to disconnect from their chosen media sources, it's our job as teachers and moral leaders to help them understand how they can learn most efficiently. We must inspire them to filter negative messages and block content that leads down shadowy paths. We must teach them how to manage the media and the information that freely flows in "the Information Age."

As Christian educators, it's part of the job.

One of the benefits of AOP's Christ-centered curricula is that it engages the interests of K-12 students with appropriate Bible-based content. In addition, we offer an online option with Switched-On®, making interactive tools available to keep your students on-task and learning.