Is Educational Technology Shortening Student Attention Spans?

I believe John Son is correct in his opinion that students of the digital generation do not suffer from short attention spans. Today’s generation has learned to be phenomenal multi-taskers, watching TV, surfing the web, and doing their homework all at the same time. Students taught traditional academic content in the same way respond positively, sometimes treating learning like another game rather than the drudgery of a lecture format approach.
In order to reach these fast paced, high speed thinkers and learners, our teaching approach must match what they are accustomed to experiencing in their own world. Lessons must be fast paced, flexible, and engaging in order to capture and retain student attention. This is the world they live in when allowed the freedom to choose their own leisure activities. Traditional teaching via reliance on lecture is doomed to fail when students feel they have to gear down to accept a one topic at a time approach.
I think as educators, our role has always been to teach students in the manner they are most suited to. Much attention is paid to differences in learning styles; we must now pay more attention to presenting lessons in a multi-tasking, more visually stimulating manner. Student’s capacity has not diminished due to shortened attention spans; it has increased to be able to absorb more fast paced and varied content than ever before. Our challenge is, as usual, to keep up with the younger generation.