Engagement: The Underlying Engine of WebQuests

The Underlying
Engagement: Engine of
WebQuests
Bernie Dodge, PhD
San Diego State University

http://webquest.org/workshops/engagement9/

My Questions to the Twitterverse:

 What is engagement? What does it
look like?
 What looks like engagement but really
isn’t?

What does engagement mean to
YOU?

What IS Engagement?

 unklar @berniedodge I think "engagement" sometimes
has to be taking notes, listening to the teacher, doing
homework alone; oh, yeah, and STUDYING!

What IS Engagement?

 mmuir@berniedodge Eye contact w Head nodding w a
smile while the teacher presents looks like engagement
but often isn't...

 mmuir@berniedodge Kids asking their own questions and
finding answers and being excited and teaching others
about it is engagement

What IS Engagement?

 thecleversheep@berniedodge Engagement: utterly tuned
in, focused and undistractable; and they don't realize
they're learning.

Informal Study

 N = 265

 Describe a learning experience you had that was boring

 And one that was fun

 The subject was the Civil War
and we were discussing the
tools, weapons, and clothing
used during that era. We worked
in small teams and moved from
one artifact table to another.

 We had to figure out what the
artifact was, what it was used
for, and why it was invented.

 We then presented our findings
to the class.

 In my junior American
Literature class, we were
expected to write a narrative
based upon a selected piece of
famous art.

 We were to study every aspect
of the painting and then create
a story around it. We were
allowed to pick the painting we
wanted from a selection and
we were allowed to work with
a partner.

 This is gross, but we were
learning what causes
finger/toenails to become
discolored or misshaped.

 We looked at slides, read out
loud, took notes and then took
our shoes off and identified the
things we had learned on each
other.

 We constructed hurricane proof houses that we tested
using a fan and then a leaf blower. you were given little
materials, expected to come up with your own design
structure and to explain your selections to a group.

Expectations

Think Critically
Think Creatively
Remember
Perform or Present
Move around
Sit still Fun
Interact with an Artifact
Boring
Interact with Instructor
Interact with Other Learners
Watch
Listen

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Second Study

http://edweb2.net/lmf/index.php

http://edweb2.net/lmf/index.php

Challenge

high
moderate
easy

0 20 40 60 80

# Stories

Teacher Enthusiasm

high
medium
low

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Interaction with other learners

high
medium
low

0 20 40 60 80

Other Common Attributes

 Instructor warmth

 Human interest

 More concrete than abstract

 Sensory rich

 Hands on

 Physical activity

Out of 160 stories
only 2 were about a lecture

Engagement & Technology
They’re all digital natives… so all we need is more hardware, right?

Caught up in the moment, I actually bought things like this.
(Well, not quite like this.)

Every day we hear about new
tools
especially at conferences like this.

Each day is like a visit to a new
country
We get excited and a part of our brain shuts down.

You’ve got to remember where
you came from
Don’t forget what you already knew as a teacher

And came with claims that make my BS detector light up.

Magazines are adopting new technologies in the name of engagement
and so will textbooks.

Be skeptical. And excited.

Conrad & Donaldson Engaged Learning Model

Collaboration

Problem-
Constructivist
Based
Principles
Learning

Engaged Learning

Engagement Research

 STROBE

 Used in medical education

 Cycle of observing teacher and students

 Validated against self-reports

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.

To sum it up: Engagement…

 is about lots of interaction,

 about the thing you’re trying to
teach,
 using as much of the brain as
possible.

It’s not easy to get this across to
novice teachers
They’ve been damaged

If only we had a visual language
for talking about this…

Teaching is at least as
complicated as football
Or rhumba

Interactions Thick lines = intense
interaction requiring
deep processing

Interactions Thin lines = weak
interaction requiring
shallow processing

News Dots

http://slatest.slate.com/features/news_dots/default.htm

Teacher
Engagement = low
Interactions demonstrates the
site. Learners watch

Teacher gives URL.
Engagement = low
to medium
Interactions Learners explore.

Teacher gives URL and a
task: What is in the news
Engagement =
medium
Interactions that interests you least?
Learners explore and
reflect.

Teacher gives URL and a
task: Within
Engagement =
high
Interactions groups, become an expert
on one aspect of the news.
Then work together and
decide on a prediction
about what the top five
topics will be tomorrow.

The SAME tool leads to
DIFFERENT engagement
It’s all about teaching, not technology

360 Cities

http://www.360cities.net/image/sanaa-sunset

How could you maximize
engaged, powerful learning with
the 360 cities site?

Working in groups of three,
decide how to maximize
this, Interactions
this,
and this.

So how can we measure
engagement in our own teaching?

EOP

Put a number from 1 to 10 to
indicate the amount of
interaction of each type.

EOP

Put a number from 1 to 6
to indicate the kind of
thinking required by the
interaction:
1 = Remembering
2 = Understanding
3 = Applying
4 = Analyzing
5 = Evaluating
6 = Creating

MEOP
Testing now in Oklahoma
Will be used in San Diego in our
Qualcomm project
Quantified feedback
Immediate results
Learning by focused observation

3-Minute Cycles

0:00 – 0:59 Observe Teacher & Class
1:00 – 1:29 Observe Student A
1:30 – 1:59 Observe Student B
2:00 – 2:29 Observe Student C
2:30 – 2:59 Observe Student D

The Ebb & Flow of Teaching

Student-Teacher

Student-Student

Student-Data

Student-Self

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Homework:
Get a friend to watch you teach
And watch the interactions.
Why? Because you’re too caught up in the moment to catch it all,
no matter how experienced you are.

So… What About WebQuests and
Engagement?

WebQuest 2.0
Incorporating blogs and wikis

Example WebQuest: India &
Pakistan

WebQuest 3.0
Incorporating handheld devices

WebQuest 3.0 Tasks

 Creating a field guide to a local park
 Making recommendations about historical
preservation
 Analyzing the healthfulness of local grocery
stores
 Gathering oral history for a compilation
 Creating a documentary about energy use

Engagement: The Underlying Engine of WebQuests

More Related Content

Engagement: The Underlying Engine of WebQuests