By David O'Hagan | Published: Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Raging against the machine
Instructors today, from university professors to grade school teachers, are in battle. And in many cases they’re not really winning. The battle is against the onslaught of new technologies, many claiming to revolutionize learning. Some may be revolutionary, many will not be. Regardless, the battle that actually needs to be fought is the one to engage students. Many technologies are engaging. Many instructors struggle to engage, and that is where the issue lies. Engaging students certainly isn’t an incredibly radical concept, but two things are happening. One, engagement of students is often overshadowed in the furious race by instructors to embrace every new technology. And two, other instructors are simply sticking to traditional and worn out methods of delivering courses. Today’s learners are different and need to be engaged differently. Instructors must make a fundamental shift in their perspective. It really comes down to facilitating learning, not delivering it.
Technology, without a doubt, can enhance learning and today’s learners are inundated with technology. Successful instructors are the ones that focus on engaging their learners. Instructors that are constantly in search of the latest and greatest technology, at the expense of creating learner engagement, are less than successful.
If engaging students is the goal (and it should be), then this 2-pronged approach is a viable and practical solution. (It can, however, require a fundamental shift in mindset.)
The solution (A combination of old school + high-tech)
Instructors need to work hard to creatively set up the scene for:
- Group-based projects
- Student-led technology adoption
Here’s the concept: Develop a number of group projects where the learners choose the appropriate technology for the project.
Two examples of projects:
Example 1
- Old way
- Sixth grade students individually learn the 50 American states and their capitals
- New way
- Students as a group select a single state based on research and choose the best multimedia technologies to develop a presentation that will showcase elements of history, geography, politics, and culture of that state and its influence on the country
Example 2
- Old way
- MBA students review a case study on dot-com marketing strategies and present to the class
- New way
- Students as a group identify a company with a colossally poor marketing campaign and creatively use technology to mimic the campaign as well as use one emerging/bleeding edge technology to reach the same target audience
There are numerous creative ways to enhance engagement through group work and technology application and the two examples above just scratch the surface.
Benefits and skills learned from this approach
Group-based projects (Far more interesting/engaging for learners)
- Leadership skills
- Project planning and scope definition
- Brainstorming and collaboration with peers and others
- Creativity
- Real-life application
Technology selection (Learners choose best technology/devices for the specific project; Give control to the experts)
- Trial and error
- Assessing, testing, implementation
- Use devices/media they’re comfortable with and enjoy
- Research/decision making
This approach, not only engages learners, but also:
- Gives learners ownership (which is huge!)
- Enables learners to experience failure in a controlled environment (Too many people are afraid of failure)
- Enables learners to learn by doing (Give a person a fish…)
The instructor becomes a facilitator, a resource, and a grease provider (for the wheel), but doesn’t drive the car.
This type of learning regularly and successfully goes on in business: Successful entrepreneurs tap into the knowledge/guidance of mentors and experts, however, they do the work (and the failing) themselves. Many successful business people from Richard Branson and even Abraham Lincoln will quickly credit their failures as an integral part of their success. It’s never too early to learn the skills of leadership, communication, and networking, which are all fundamental to life.
Embracing the desire to engage, is not only good for students, it makes the life of the instructor far more interesting.
Posted in: Blogging eLearning Higher Education Industry Trends Kindergarten - Grade 12 Learning Environment Technology Transforming Teaching & Learning
2 Comments:
Brian Haferkamp said...
There are two problems with this idea: the diminished role of the teacher and the question of what we're teaching. First, a teacher is a highly specialized job that can't be just outsourced to a facilitator. The true teacher is a lifelong learner that continues to grow and can pass that along to students. They are not people with teaching certificates that teach a curriculum. If this is the case, why are we not all home schooled. A caring parent can do the same work and in a better environment. Your "new-school" approach is, therefore, too student-oriented. Second, education should consist of more than just learning the kinds of skills that are "good in the business world." In fact, we don't even need school for that. We have playgrounds and sports teams and any number of critical thinking activities during the day to learn the concepts of teamwork and leadership. If it comes down to it, they can even be learned in the corporate environment. These are important concepts and represent the old-school, by the way but should not be the entirety of learning. Without someone getting and creating new content, who will all these new project managers lead? Educators learn to teach. Students learn to become educators who learn to teach. This is the cycle. To break that cycle is to remove an essential part from the equation. I'd love to work for Desire2Learn, by the way. I think your product is great. I have a tremendous vision for technological innovation that fits in well with your suite of products. Drop me an email to let me know if you're interested.
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Joe Cozart said...
Well put, this is what online learning should strive for. It is time intensive to develop courses this way, but worth it.