ENGAGE ME OR ENRAGE ME

I pulled the following together from a presentation at a conference earlier this year. It is an interesting look at student engagement in classrooms. Students are totally connected beings and they expect, rather demand, that they be actively involved in the process of learning. The days of the cold teacher lecture are going away to be replaced by a much more interactive learning environment. Classrooms will become places of active student involvement or the students will take charge. This is nothing new. Experienced teachers have known for years that they path to a productive classroom is through student involvement in the learning activity.

There are changes in the old three component learning situation. The learning situation is clearly made up of three components: student, teacher and lesson. The background that the student brings into the classroom is much more varied that was true in the past of only 10 - 20 years ago. Students know more, have access to more information and expect to be allowed to use their knowledge and connectivity to participate in the classroom. The teacher and the lesson are evolving, but not fast enough to keep up with the changes in the student. Mr. Prensky's view of this situation is interesting and clear; engage the students or they will become enraged with all the implications of that enragement carried full bore into the classroom.

WHAT DOES RESEARCH TELL US ABOUT ENGAGEMENT?

ENGAGE ME
OR
ENRAGE ME

What do students tell us?
*We don’t listen
*We don’t engage them
*We don’t respect them
*We bore them (worse at lower grades)
*Engage me or enrage me

Kids are not engaged for one of two primary reasons
*We are not teaching the right things (focused on past, not kids future)
*We are not teaching the right way (use tools we know, not tools they respect)

Kids used to grow up isolated and in the dark; school opened the world to them.
Now, kids grow up in the light; we take away their tools and put them in the dark at
school.

So, how can we turn on the lights?

Schools are in real competition - kids are learning with out us.
Schools give out “old stuff”, they learn what they need after or out of school.
Schools are the real problem for kids’ learning and we are losing the competition.

There are three switches to “turn on the light” at school
*Understanding and dealing with contemporary students
*Understanding and dealing with change
*Engaging kids in real learning

Switch 1
Kids are not the same anymore
*They are digitally engaged to excess
-We see technology as a tool; they see it as life
*They learn differently, think differently
*Kids are digital natives, we are the immigrants – we have accents

Switch 2
We have only begun to experience rapid change
*Rapid change is the norm of kids’ lives
-Teaching and our job should change; learning already has
*Kids are the only ones embracing change today
*We must teach with things we do not understand
-Get kids to help us with it
*Teachers shouldn’t waste time trying to learn it all
-We just look stupid

Switch 3
Engagement = Motivation = Passion = Learning
*Engagement is changing
*The effort of learning can feel either like work (school) or play (engagement)
* Kids have to “power down” when they come to school
-Do dumber things and only one thing at a time
-They are multi-taskers; we call them ADHD
*To teach today, we must enter their world and use their tools

Here’s a bonus switch
Mutual respect
*We are disrespectful of kids
*We get back what we give out
-We are all learners and teachers
-Give them work that is worth respect
-Respect what kids find important
-Respect kids for what they are and what they will become

A few last words
*Let kids help with instruction
*Involve kids in everything we do
*Keep asking key questions
-This is the reason teachers are in classrooms with the kids


Marc Prensky
1-30-07