Engagement does NOT Ensure Learning

Just because students may appear "engaged" does not mean genuine learning is taking place. Gaining attention and building capacity for understanding and capability for application, are not the same process.

Certainly it helps in the classroom when students are engaged. However, engagement alone may merely inform. Genuine learning occurs when skill sets and/or real capability is enhanced.

This is why so many educational games are just that; games. They engage and entertain but do they "teach?" Remembering facts is helpful but understanding how to apply facts via extrapolation, is the higher order thinking goal.

Knowing history and understanding history are as different as knowing what certain foods taste like versus understanding how to prepare them and in fact, possessing the skill to do so.

Media fights for attention. Engagement is the goal from every direction. But there is a difference between informing and educating. Informing is a tool that facilitates the reduction of uncertainty. Education increases capability. The value-added increase of capability is achieved by blending practice with feedback that is tied to targeted outcomes.

Too much education is merely informational albeit engaging. Many in education contend rightly that technology as a tool is more engaging than traditional pedagogical practices. However, technology must be used to teach by integrating curriculum, incorporating feedback loops, and result in evaluative outcomes already agreed upon.

The bottom line is, it's easy to engage. The challenge is to teach. Skilled educators know not only how to engage, but how to "educe" real learning from their students.

Faculty that are equipped with the pedagogical skills will then understand how to apply emerging technologies in a way that supports and streamlines old practices. Educational technologists are needed as liaisons on campuses in order to facilitate this integration. (posted 2/3/10)