The article highlighted something that many instructors / teachers / learning facilitators try to ignore: while modern students have a reduced attention span, it is only for those things that do not grasp the students full attention. The article (Prensky, 2005, 'Engage me or enrage me', Educause Review Sep/Oct), did not detail, however, that within a class of twenty to thirty students, there will be as many as twenty to thirty different 'hot buttons' to be pressed ... one size certainly does not fit all !
Having worked for small while in a small part of large organisation, where the small part specialises in creating Computer Based Learning products, I find a disconnect between the gist of the article and the work we did. Some people strived to produce material which would reach toward the goal of learner engagement, as presented by Prensky, while the approach of others was to adjust the learners to the product. Having said that, overall, everyone said that they want to engage the learners, but if the material designers do not have the skill to prepare engaging material, then engaging material would not ... COULD NOT ... be created.
It is not just computer creative skills needed, it is an active understanding of where today's learners are at, that is often missing. Prensky reminds of our target's location.
Unintelligent by birth ...
ReplyDeleteSomewhere I read that university research found that less-intelligent parents bore less-intelligent children, and vice versa. Taken to an extreme, the claim by behaviourist that with the enough training a horse can be trained to read (or something like that), is proved false ... a horse will always be ... a horse, not a human; but that is a different argument.
Siemens’ article on ‘Connectivism’ is quite thought provoking. The three learning theories of Behaviourism, Cogntivism and Constructivism each have their place, strong and weak points. Siemens goes on to highlight a particular skill of identifying patterns, links, connections between pieces of knowledge, experiences, skills, and using this a tool, or stepping stone, to advance the knowledge of the subject (student / person).
Connectivism highlights the need to include the relevant additional skills in the learning experiences. This will aid learners to recognise the relevance of new knowledge and skills (Cognitivism) build upon their existing knowledge (Constructivism), and sometimes to source new foundational knowledge and skills (Behaviourism) to connect to and add to what is already known.