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Building Learner Curiosity

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Make the learning speak: Kindling the flame

As someone who’s been in the learning and development (L&D) space for a while, I’ve seen my role grow from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a ‘must-have’ in most forward-thinking industries. Companies are waking up to the reality that if employees have the proper training and information, feel a part of something larger, and spend time immersing themselves in company culture, they are more satisfied with their job. And we all know what greater job satisfaction means. (I would insert a bunch of data here, but you would just skim over it because it’s common sense).

In the past, many companies felt that L&D was something that could be outsourced or was simply a one-and-done product. They’ve finally woken up to the fact that what and how their employees learn, gain new skills, and grow in their careers is ever-evolving and requires a team of learning experts to keep abreast of their industry’s particular learning needs.

As the focus on L&D grows, new and ever evolving tools emerge. I see the masses migrate from one new development or design tool, a new feature release, or new technology like kids at a zoo clamoring to see the polar bears, then the lions, then the gorillas. They stand in clusters at conferences or huddled in meeting rooms oohing and ahhing over the latest AI or content authoring tool. When I step back and shake off the amazement, I realize it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. The best tools in the world, AI included, aren’t going to change the learners themselves. The slickest, most engaging learning experience isn’t going to achieve lasting change either. Before the keyboard warriors come at me, let me explain.

I stumbled upon a quote during my undergraduate years as a bright-eyed enthusiastic teacher in training. It has remained my North Star throughout my career both as an educator and a learning content creator. It’s simply this:

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” -Socrates.

Just sit with that for a moment.

I think the downfall of a lot of learning content is that it was designed to fill a vessel and not kindle a flame. Let me throw in a little analogy here (sorry, my English instructor roots are showing). Let’s say you have this fabulous new candle, and you want to light it before your husband comes home to complain about the smell of the salmon dish you cooked for dinner. What’s the goal? To light the candle, right? So, how do you get there? Does it matter if it’s a pack of matches? A box of matches? A gas station cigarette lighter? A long handled lighter for your Solo stove? An antique silver lighter from the 1920’s that women with long velvet gloves and beaded gowns used to light their cigarettes attached to those long holders as soft jazz music played in the background? I think you get where I’m headed with this. If the goal is to light the candle, you can do so with something as simple as a match or go completely overboard to a bejeweled lighter – as long as you light the candle.

But, the more important question is why I needed to light the candle in the first place. What needed to change once the candle was lit? Effective learning experiences have to have outcomes (lighting the candle) and objectives (how the candle will be lit), but I think there is something that is often overlooked: space for the learner. I believe the best learning experiences make space for the learner to question why and what they’re learning. They kindle the flame of curiosity that makes the learner want to know more, do more, and be more.

It’s simple. Content dump click paths do nothing to kindle a flame and build learner curiosity.

So, the next time you find yourself exhausted chasing down every subject matter expert (SME) for every morsel of content to include the answer to every question any learner would ever ask, stop yourself and ask what you can do to instead have the learner be curious enough to chase down answers for themselves.

Making Meaning Out of Chaos

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You have been working at this online teaching gig for a few weeks now, and whether you’re sinking, sailing, or soaring, you understand the need for quality digital learning content, and you understand more with each passing day that you simply can’t create it all on your own. Maybe your school system provides standardized learning material from a textbook publisher, or maybe it falls to you to upload that content. Either way, you are probably beginning to realize this canned material is not enough to engage your students in meaningful ways.

So, you’ve been thrust into the world of online learning. Are you sinking or swimming?

Motivating students in an online environment is challenging to say the least. You no longer have the ability to walk by a student’s desk and look over their shoulder to see if John can regroup a 2-digit addition problem, or if Shelia can find the circumference of a circle, or if Nick is even paying attention. Students may ask a question in a discussion forum hours before you see it, and the opportunity for meaningful, just-in-time learning has passed, and, let’s face it, it’s frustrating.

As a 20-year veteran of the classroom, I have a lot of “teacher friends.” I think the one consistent message that I hear in our socially distant conversations is that they can’t create quality learning activities fast enough or even evaluate if students are learning at all. As a veteran in the online teaching space, my biggest piece of advice each time is this: When migrating your classroom online, you no longer are the sole creator of the learning material, you are now a curator of content. But, take heart, as a curator, you can select the best resources and provide these learning assets for you students to engage in the learning in new and meaningful ways.

You may be thinking, “Ok, but how do I find this content?” Here are a few tips to find meaningful, engaging, and quality resources to share with your students:

1.      Look through all the resources that your textbook publisher provides. I mean it. There are often great little nuggets to be found in the available material. There might be online games, new lesson ideas and resources, or additional content that will assist your students as they try to learn in new ways.

2.      Search for content on trusted websites. This seems obvious, but you would be surprised what passes for truth on the internet. Websites with .edu or .gov are a great place to start.

3.      Visit company websites for classroom products you love. Love Elmer’s glue? Check out the STEAM activity ideas that they have available. Can’t live without your SMART Board? They have thousands of lesson ideas and ready-made activities that you can use today.

4.      Work with your fellow teachers and find out what is working for them. When I was in the classroom, there were always a few colleagues who hoarded their ideas but would readily use other teachers’ ideas and inspiration in a hot minute. It’s time to lower our walls because we’re all in this together.

5.      Take three long breaths. Be patient- with yourself and your students- this is new territory for everyone.

It feels chaotic, this world of ours. It seems as though everything has been taken from us: our classrooms, our students, our favorite lessons and activities, our routines… and it’s hard. As we begin to see the dust settle around us, we can begin to find new meaning, new purpose, new routines, and a new normal by working together with our colleagues, parents, and students to learn in new ways that help us make meaning out of the chaos.

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Status is onlineDawn Brinker WhiteDigital Content Development | eLearning | Editing | SMARTPublished • 2mo3 articles hashtag#onlinelearninghashtag#digitallearninghashtag#edtechhashtag#smarttechnology

Moving to the “How”

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We’ve moved from viewing online learning as a vehicle to share existing course materials out to a larger audience, to a realization that learning online can be so much more than a window into a traditional classroom environment. eLearning, when thoughtfully developed, is enhancing learning and teaching and creating new ways for students to assimilate a vast amount of information effectively and efficiently- but only when the learning materials are presented in a way that supports students in this environment. The focus is no longer solely on what we teach, but how we teach it.

Integral to enhance and support the learning process is the use of instructional media. Instructional media, or the “physical means, other than the teacher, chalkboard, and textbook, via which instruction is presented to learners,” not only help learners understand concepts more fully but also help the instructor to organize and explain these concepts more fully and easily (Reiser and Dempsey, 18). Traditionally, instructional media were viewed by most educators as supplementary materials, whereas “teachers and textbooks [were] viewed as the primary means of presenting instruction” (18). Technological advancements such as video, computers, and the internet, as well as the increase in online education programs in both the non-profit and for-profit arenas, have changed the scope of instructional media. One such instructional learning technique–collaborative online learning—should be included in any discussion of instructional media.

The design of an online course and the presentation of the course materials become larger determining factors of a student’s success; whereas even a decade ago, the learner’s success was based largely upon the presentation skills of the instructor. Engaging students in an online environment removes this integral part of the traditional classroom environment. In an eLearning environment, the course materials need to be engaging and interactive, and not just the instructor, in order for the student to assimilate the material.

One element which helps students interact not only with each other but with the course content as well in collaborative online learning. The educational benefits of collaborative online learning are numerous, and the use of these methods for teaching and course structure are quickly “becoming an instructional approach of choice for online courses” (Chiong and Jovanovic, 2012).

Learning has changed since I started teaching in the early 90’s. In the past 20 years or so there has been an increase in the use of educational computer games to support and enhance student learning. “Technological developments such as the Internet and Web-based applications have accelerated this trend and game-based learning has recently become a significant focus of attention in the field of education” (Wu et al).

One facet of online collaborative learning that has viable future options is the incorporation of digital games. Low-tech learning games (such as board games) have been utilized in learning environments for decades. Both low-tech and digital learning games allow students an opportunity to interact with each other and the material in an alternative and (hopefully) exciting way. Digital learning games allow students the opportunity to work not only in groups but individually as well, but this research focuses on those digital learning games which are collaborative in nature.

Technology will continue to influence the educational landscape in ways that we cannot imagine. As we move forward, developing meaningful learning environments for students who assimilate information in new ways, it will be increasingly important to not only examine what we teach but how we teach it.

Works Cited

Chiong, R., Jovanovic, J., & Gill, T. (2012). Collaborative Learning in Online Study Groups: An Evolutionary Game Theory Perspective. Journal Of Information Technology Education, 1181-101.

Kiili, K., Kiili, C., Ott, M., & Jönkkäri, T. (2012). Towards Creative Pedagogy: Empowering Students to Develop Games. Proceedings Of The European Conference On Games Based Learning, 250-257.

Wu, W. H., Hsiao, H. C., Wu, P. L., Lin, C. H., & Huang, S. H. (2012). Investigating the learning-theory foundations of game-based learning: a meta-analysis. Journal Of Computer Assisted Learning, 28(3), 265-279. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00437.x

Whitton, N. (2012). The place of game-based learning in an age of austerity. Electronic Journal Of E-Learning, 10(2), 249-256.

Romero, M., & Usart, M. (2012). Game Based Learning Time-On-Task and Learning Performance According to Students’ Temporal Perspective. Proceedings Of The European Conference On Games Based Learning, 424-431.