"I carry a box with a couple of sets of Sharpies of various colours plus Muji pens and pencils. Grabbed and distributed in a coordinated Mexican wave. Seriously, the full Csikszentmihalyi flow."
Sharpies: 2mm thick permanent marker pens in bright colours
Muji: Japanese stationery shop with a good stock of fine nib gel and ink pens
Mihali Csikszentmihalyi is a philosopher who has articulated the concept of flow-state. The relevant Wikipedia page is a good basic guide [1]
"While my students normally exhibited a substantial amount of distraction in our class, I was pleased to discover that since they were all artistically-oriented students, an impromptu art activity was able to occupy their full undivided attention for an extended period of time."
You're welcome.
I was using the term as a metaphor for the way that particular group of students just all went for the chance to draw something.
Thankyou for engaging.
This year, I won the timetabling lottery and got classes with fine art, graphics, fashion and media students.
Usual distractions (phones: Facebook, various instant messaging services &c). I gave each student a simple cardboard document wallet to keep finished work in and suggested that they put their name on the wallet and 'customise' it.
Silence: focussed activity for 15mins. I carry a box with a couple of sets of Sharpies of various colours plus Muji pens and pencils. Grabbed and distributed in a coordinated Mexican wave. Seriously, the full Csikszentmihalyi flow.
Now I have to find a way of channelling that into Maths... I'm taking Tufte's books in next week to see what happens.
TD;LR Digital natives can concentrate when they want to.