Michael Allen's 2009 e-Learning Annual

3.4. OLD BRAINS OR NEW BRAINS?

In spite of the buzz about multiprocessing abilities of digital natives, all of us'old and young alike'are limited in our capacity to simultaneously process multiple sources of new information. Look no further than recent headlines on fatal accidents attributed to driving while text messaging. Our brain's thinking power house is a very limited memory device. When we perform thinking tasks such as learning, working memory can hold only limited amounts of information and simultaneously engage in meaningful processing (Clark, Nguyen, & Sweller, 2006).

All of us can multi-task to the extent that, through repetition, some skills have become automatic. For example, experienced drivers have automated driving skills that ...