"Continuous partial attention" is a term that was coined in the late 1990s, to describe the increasingly dispersed nature of attention in online environments. The purpose of this article is to describe the concept, discuss its implications for online learning, and propose a new agenda for research in what has been called "the Age of Interruption."

Discussion of constructivism that is based on concerns raised in an earlier issue focuses on demands placed on the learners. Three areas are explored: (1) cognitive complexity; (2) task management, to help sequence students through a learning experience; and (3) learners "buying in" to the constructivist agenda of the instruction. (10…