Eclectic Technology

Perhaps with school starting up again, I am more aware of the number of posts that look at metacognition, and how our brains learn. This post from SH!FT provides the acronym B.R.A.I.N. B.A.S.E.D to help you remember key components of designing a course. Although the post is designed for eLearning the same concepts are also important in a face-2-face environment.

Let's look at the B in brain. It stands for the "brain's time clock." How long can students engage in active learning vs. passive learning? How long can a student online stay engaged (or a student in your classroom)? For each letter there is an explanation and in most cases links to additional resources.

The number of students participating in online courses continues to grow and for those that currently teach with students in their physical classroom, there are shifts towards blended learning, with part of the day online and part of the day with more direct instruction. This post looks at ways to keep students' attention online, but the same components are also important in the face2face classroom.

What is it that help students pay attention?

* Problem solving

* Comparisons

* Visuals

* Questions

* Emotions

* Stories

* Contrast

* Controversy

* Brevity

* Lists

Each of these areas is described in more depth when you click through to the post and in many cases you will find links to additional resources.

You may already be using some of these strategies, but try combining two or more to see how students react. Many of the strategies promote authentic learning opportunities, which promote high engagement. All are valuable to understand and to use in the classroom, but it online or face2face.

How can we engage eLearners? How about using storytelling techniques. Stories engage us and they will also engage students. This post explores this, providing an infographic as well as discussing the power of stories before moving on to explore ways to bring storytelling into eLearning. 

There are six components that are discussed:

1. Know your audience.

2. Use a structure.

3. Appeal to emotions.

4. Intensify the story with visuals.

5. Make the stories relevant to the course.

6. Pay attention to detail.

As always additional resources are linked to in most of the six components with more at the end of the post. The components shared in this post also apply to teaching in a face2fact classroom, or  blended classroom. As you work on new lessons this year consider using these components to help design the lesson.