From the Principal

According to Johann Hari's book, Stolen Focus. Why Can't You Pay Attention, it is not our fault we can't focus. We now live in an environment where sustained and deep focus is extremely hard for all of us. His research suggests that switching between tasks when working (checking emails, texts, calls, changing to the many open tabs on our screen) not only lowers the quality of output (by up to 30%), but also lowers IQ.

This digital form of 'multitasking', that we are doing on a daily basis, is proving to be ineffective and incurs a great time cost, cognitively. His research suggests:

• The average student switches tasks once every 65 seconds
• The median amount of time students focus on any one thing is 19 seconds
• An average office working adult focuses on one task for 3 minutes

The systemic problems from technology causing our global attention crisis are also contributing to the current mental health crisis. What is both fascinating and frightening is that the efforts to support children's mental health are limited, when they continue to 'hold the weapon in the palm of their hand' (their phone).

But is it their fault, if it is a system wide problem of tech companies designing addictive programs, creating environments that steal our attention? Perhaps this system wide problem requires a system wide solution. In this context Saint Ignatius’ College is currently reviewing our mobile phone policy and look forward to sharing an update soon.

Further to this is the recent juggernaut of Artificial Intelligence. This has exploded into the educational stratosphere and it has been intriguing to see how schools, systems and sectors have responded to this technology. Some of our staff recently engaged with AI expert, Dr. Nick Jackson, who has been guiding us to see artificial intelligence as our critical friend. He has explored the benefits for our students and staff, using this technology with curiosity with an open-mind and using it for thinking, inspiration, planning, ideation and clarification. Dr. Jackson believes that artificial intelligence can support critical thinking in our students, when they are given the tools and strategies around its use. Our teachers actively teach our students about responsible and safe use of technology, including artificial intelligence literacy, through safe use, ethics and prompting.

We have a commitment to balance the needs of our young people. We aim to concurrently optimise their focus and attention to learning while at school, as well as responsibly exploring technological tools and advancement under guidance and supervision.

Lauren Brooks
Principal