Marty Hill

Learning Management System Coordinator ~ Faculty Support

Marty has been at San Juan College since the summer of 1997. Starting in the Instructional Computing Resource Center as Faculty Development Coordinator, Marty moved fulltime into the field of online learning and distance education in 1999.

As a team member in Online Services, she fills the roles of ANGEL Learning Management Systems Coordinator, Instructional Designer, and online faculty support. Marty maintains her status as a Senior Certified WebCT/Blackboard Trainer as well as an ANGEL Learning Systems Trainer.

Marty serves as a member of the New Mexico Learning Network, a statewide organization of eLearning Practitioners, Professionals and Advocates whose vision is to advance eLearning in New Mexico.

ENGAGING DIGITAL LEARNERS

Each month Campus Technology magazine publishes a Top 10 Countdown on the final page of the issue.  This month's coundown addresses a topic we are all concerned about - Engaging Digital Learners.  Dr. Ellen Wagner lists 8 rules and 2 insights to get and keep your students interested. 
 

Quoted from the article:
 

  • RULE: Capture their attention.
    • Learners deal with an enormous number of sensory inputs on any given day.
    • Helping them focus attention is a critical first step when engaging students.
  • RULE: Convince them to care.
    • Getting their attention is only the first step.
    • Be sure you have something to keep your learners' interests piqued; you want them to stay for a while!
  • RULE: Motivate them to change.
    • Learning can be defined as a sustained change in capacity that persists over time.
    • Consider what it will take to compel students to do things differently.
  • RULE: Give them choices.
    • Learners want to engage with ideas, information, and each other, on terms they define for themselves.
  • RULE: Connect them with community.
    • People learn from watching, showing, and sharing with people who care as much as they do.
    • social learning is alive and well!
  • RULE: Induce them to participate.
    • Participation gives learners a sense of feeling personally engaged.
  • Enable opportunities to contribute.
    • Engage learners in the active negotiation of new knowledge.
    • That new learning will be more relevant to each and every contributor.
  • RULE: Make learning an experience to remember.
    • The more memorable a learning experience, the greater likelihood students will remember what they've learned.
  • INSIGHT Consider that maybe it's not about putting the learner at the center.
    • It's more about giving learners the skills to decide where to engage.
    • In today's socially networked world, it's important to help students feel connected to the community.
    • Relationships that operate in a networked manner may inspire lifelong learning.
  • INSIGHT: Always remember, learning is personal.
    • Despite the many psychological theories and principles proposed to explain what is going on inside our heads, learning continues to be unique to each individual.
    • No one of us can every really "do" learning to someone else, at least not without the permission or willingness to be persuaded.

Full information on this resource can be found at: http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/47761/

Tell me what you think about this article.  Feel free to add to the list and share with other colleagues.

Would you like to see other articles like this one that focus on techniques for online teaching and learning?  I'd like to hear from you.
 

Contact Me

Name:

Email:

Question / Comment:

  

Contact Information
Email: hillm@sanjuancollege.edu
Phone: 566-3309