Solving the new paradigm problem

Ok, so I admit that I let this blog slide after graduate school--too many excuses but basically I was trying to implement some of what I learned while at UVA.

Now, I find this multitasking creature is the paradigm shift of student attention--too late for an intervention--they wouldn't notice it anyway. Students are perpetually distracted, stimulated, influenced by media, programmed, re-programmed, and then rebooted again the next year with a new operating system just in time for the latest educational supertrend...I don't know how they can possibly get through it all... The real question is how do we "edutainers" manage to penetrate this web of mis-attention to try and re-arrange the neurons of this person so that they will "Understand, Know, and be able to Do" (UKD) some fossilized list of "knowledge" and "skills" that have been gloriously brought down from the mountains of politicized pundits who have plenty of poll numbers to back up their "statistical analysis".

What to do?

Three parts--oh, it's quite simple you say...
1.  Eliminate the distractions...hmmm...might work...OR might it just drive them to be MORE creative in their methods to hide the distractions from the distraction "police"?
2.  Make the knowledge and skills more "interesting"...hmmm...well we could add bells, whistles, flashing lights, explosions, and even a reference or two to a teen idol...but still must compete with all of the "noise" of the other distractions.
3.  Make the distractions PART of the lesson or knowledge/skills---Whoa!  How would that work?  We could USE the distractions to our own advantage...BUT that will require MORE  work and a steep learning curve for the "edutainers"...hmmm...Who could we tap that would have the knowledge of how to use these distractions in this new way?...AHA!

Should we then ask some of the STUDENTS to DESIGN a method to USE the distractions--as MANY of them as possible to EXPLAIN the concepts/knowledge/skills to their PEERS?...Wait a minute...This just might work!  But again, it requires the "dinoeducator" to evolve quickly into a Distraction facilitator--this sounds a lot like selling out?...OR is it? 

I often wonder if I am meeting my students "halfway", but I think I should be asking am I meeting their FUTURE needs in terms of what I am really emphasizing in knowledge/concepts/skills?  So, I have to find ways to be creative in plugging in the "required" content into a world that drowns it out.  Why not enlist as many allies as possible in this?  Some of the students will naturally be interested in the concepts/material, so we MUST identify these students and let them be the leaders in suggesting methods to create the NEW versions of the "learning tools" that will best meet their peers on their level.   This, however, is not as easy as it sounds...for, students also have social status, etc. that they must maintain, so the trick here is to find the best synthesis between the content and the digital, social world that the students inhabit.  Naturally, I would prefer to study this problem in detail, but the shift in digital social media is happening faster than I can conduct a research study...so, I propose a compromise.

What do we need?
A system that will PROJECT into the future what may REALLY be necessary to UKD...(remember it) in order for students to be successful. 
A system that allows student leaders to be the bridge between the semi-relevant content and this newly envisioned future.
A system that has significant FLEXIBILITY built in so that it can adapt (i.e. evolve) as needed fast enough to meet the changing needs of its' inhabitants.

Otherwise...our educational "system"  will go...well...extinct (Sound familar?) 
The new paradigm shift is solved only by adapting and shifting ourselves...
A "kaleidoscopic" system...what will the next picture look like?