{"id":30105,"date":"2015-05-04T18:22:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T22:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=30105"},"modified":"2015-05-04T18:22:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T22:22:09","slug":"ability-to-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/ability-to-focus.html","title":{"rendered":"Ability to Focus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

If someone tells you that today\u2019s students, perhaps because of video games, simply cannot focus the way students could in the past, don\u2019t believe them.<\/p>\n

Halo Reach players spent five years trying to accomplish something in the game that seemed impossible<\/a>: getting into\u2026an empty room, one that was otherwise inaccessible, referred to as the \u201cBanshee Room.\u201d Here are the details of how it is done:<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nThe amount of focus, concentration, and repetition that is involved in figuring out something like this is no different than what is required for learning a language, or anything else that is difficult.<\/p>\nAll that is needed is to persuade students that the\u00a0ability to speak a new language is worth the same kind of effort that they are willing to devote to whatever else they spend their time on.<\/p>\nIn some instances, at least in theory, that should not be a hard sell.<\/p>\nIf anyone reading this sees the light and decides that time they have been spending playing video games (or doing something else that earns only virtual rewards) could be better spent learning a language, let me recommend the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0743500415\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743500415&linkCode=as2&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&linkId=SGE5DX4QDKSSAVBI\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pimsleur language courses<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important\" src=\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0743500415\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\">. They are fantastic, and if you put them on in the car or some other commute, you actually won\u2019t have to choose between learning a language and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B002BSA20M\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002BSA20M&linkCode=as2&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&linkId=QKLFLDYH5BIL5EJY\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Halo<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002BSA20M\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\">.<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0743500415\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743500415&linkCode=as2&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&linkId=SGE5DX4QDKSSAVBI\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0743500415&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important\" src=\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0743500415\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B002BSA20M\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002BSA20M&linkCode=as2&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&linkId=QKLFLDYH5BIL5EJY\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B002BSA20M&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002BSA20M\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If someone tells you that today\u2019s students, perhaps because of video games, simply cannot focus the way students could in the past, don\u2019t believe them. Halo Reach players spent five years trying to accomplish something in the game that seemed impossible: getting into\u2026an empty room, one that was otherwise inaccessible, referred to as the \u201cBanshee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1001,2099,2970,3361,4307,4351,10004,10220,10561,12903,12947,13375,13376],"class_list":["post-30105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-banshee","tag-concentration","tag-education","tag-faq","tag-hack","tag-halo","tag-reach","tag-repetition","tag-room","tag-trick","tag-troubleshooting","tag-video-game","tag-video-games"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Ability to Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If someone tells you that today's students, perhaps because of video games, simply cannot focus the way students could in the past, don't believe them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/ability-to-focus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ability to Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If someone tells you that today's students, perhaps because of video games, simply cannot focus the way students could in the past, don't believe them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/ability-to-focus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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