Engagement: What is it and Where Can I Get Some?

Second Life, World of Warcraft, Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube... the list of tools discouraged at school but indispensable at home grows longer. Many point to the lack of engagement in classes caused by a mismatch between digital learners and predigital teachers. We'll take a close look at the extent to which this might be true and grapple with some important questions: Engagement with what? What does it look like? In the pursuit of engagement, which technologies are worth the costs and overhead, and which aren't?

Links Mentioned During the Session

• Time Lapse of a baby playing. Pure engagement!
  
• Learning, Motivation & Fun. Videos of 160 stories about engaged learning.
  
• O’Malley, K. et al, (2003). Validation of an observational instrument for Measuring student engagement in health professions settings. Evaluation & the health professions, 2003, 26; 86.
• Esquire's Augmented Reality Issue. On the newstands now! And in your textbooks soon. Be afraid.
• If Real Life was Like SecondLife
• WebQuest.org - Designed from the start for engagement
• Slate Magazine's News Dots
• 360 Cities: View from a rooftop in Sana'a