It's About Learning

In the past several weeks I have attended several functions in which the speakers talked about their experiences in college. Unfortunately what they said about their experiences was not surprising and not very encouraging.  For example, one individual who retired at age 55 talked about his experience going back to university to get a degree that would help him in a new endeavor. In sharing his challenges of being an adult learner and not being in school for many years, this individual talked about cramming for tests, meaningless assignments and all the work that he had to do which really didn’t appear to have any significance toward the degree he was working toward. While it was disappointing to hear about this individual’s experience it was even more disappointing to listen to the majority of the audience grown in agreement with his experience.

The audience also laughed in agreement with the speaker when he indicated that he was looking for any opportunity to get out of finishing his degree. They also laughed reluctantly when the speaker indicated that he just had to buckle down and “jump through the hoops” to get through his degree. This is an example of an adult learner who is motivated, mature, and responsible enough to know that the degree that he was working towards would enable him to do the things he wanted to do in the future. And yet, he only saw his educational experience as a means to an end – not as an opportunity to learn, grow and to be enriched. As learning theorist and an educator I grimace when I hear these types of stories but I also recall similar frustrations with many of my classes. I also shudder to consider what the average 18 or 19-year-old, who is often less motivated and focused, is thinking about their experiences in college. NSSE scores confirm that many of our students do not believe that they are being engaged or challenged enough.

It doesn’t have to be this way – one’s educational experiences can be so much more. Learning should be an active, dynamic and engaging process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based on new, current and past knowledge. The making of meaningful connections is key to learning and knowing and this can be very rewarding and motivating. I also know that we need to move from the passive educational environment of main lecture points, rubrics, individual competition and standardized testing to an active learning environment of interactive presentations, critical and analytical thinking, collaboration and meaningful projects.  We (the Academy) have the responsibility to create significant and engaging learning environments to make these types of stories to go away.

Fortunately, teaching & learning is changing and some people are speculating that mobile devices are one good way of fostering engagement and interaction. But what do we mean by engagement or engaging learning?

In her book Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty, Elizabeth R. Barkley defines engagement as a

process and a product that is experience on a continuum and results from the synergistic interaction between motivation and active learning.

In Defining Student Engagement: A Literature Review Adam Fletcher reveals that a consolidated definition suggests that:

Students are engaged when they are attracted to their work, persist in despite challenges and obstacles, and take visible delight in accomplishing their work. Student engagement also refers to a student willingness, need desire and compulsion to participate in, and be successful in the learning process.

Perhaps one of the most significant revelations regarding engagement is that we tend to know what it looks like when students are engaged and equally important when they are not. Just watch any young person playing a video game and you will likely see expressions similar to those in the image below.

In “Engage Me or Enrage Me”: What Today’s Learner’s Demand, Mark Prensky reminds us that most young people have video games, music, movies, extreme sports, social networking and many other activities that are engaging. He also reminds us that these young people aren’t necessary looking for “eye-candy or the wow factor” they are simply looking for a challenging environment in which they can learn to adapt.

Mobile devices themselves really do nothing to foster engagement  but what they do is force educators to think about the learning environment in new ways. Because we can tap into the internet and vast databases of information, anytime and anywhere with mobile technology, we no longer have to focus on “delivering the content” or require our learners to memorize and regurgitate information. We can move beyond the informational aspect of instruction and move into the realm of analysis and critical thinking and have our learners apply this information to genuine and signficant problems and projects.

These tools force us to rethink the classroom and the learning environment as a whole because we are not able to stuff the classroom into the device. We have no choice but to rethink the way we design our classes and our learner’s experiences – the learner not the content becomes the central focus. When you combine this with the fact that these tools give us access to so much information we can now really focus on the learner, engage them, and help them make those significant connections. What an exciting opportunity!