Part-1 Comfortable Learning Tools for Engaging Screenagers?

DrWarren's engaging presentation as he shares Engaging Screenagers

Part-1 Comfortable Learning Tools for Engaging Screenagers?

The other day a concerned mother said to me she was worried her Engaging Screenagers were spending too much time with devices so, “Why do you want them to learn with their devices?”
My answer was a question, “Wouldn’t you rather Engaging Screenagers learned how to learn (optimal engagement) with their devices than just play (junk engagement) with their devices?”
She agreed.
In fact, I have never met a parent who would rather their kids play on a mobile device than have their kids learn on a mobile device.
Here in Hong Kong, the initial research shows that middle class families control their children’s device engagement much more than lower class parents, as similar to Malcolm Gladwell wrote in The Outliers.
GLADWELL
Often after my “Parents with Engaging Screenagers” workshops, parents tell me they are deleting most all of the play ‘only’ apps and install play ‘learning’ apps on the devices on their households.
I am often asked why I started doing research on using mobile devices to learn in the classroom.
It goes back to when I taught the Dale Carnegie Public Speaking course and we were trained to be engaging in everything we did in class.
Throughout my career I have used those engaging tools and techniques in my trainings, seminars, courses, etc. with quite engaging results.
When I started training and teaching in Hong Kong however, those tools worked but not nearly as well as culturally there was little participation as class members in this culture just listened to the instructor.
It was quite a struggle, as I tried all the tools and techniques I could because I knew how much more valuable the training was when class members actively engaged with the learning.
I explored different options like Clickers to increase the active engagement, but when we were waiting for everyone to vote several times per class, the energy would die in the classroom.
I think it was back in the beginning of the Fall semester of 2010, I saw that 3-4 students (on average) in each of my university courses had these new smartphones, and by the end of the semester the majority of students had these new smartphones.
I wasn’t excited that these students were telling me they couldn’t afford textbooks but they could go by a smartphone worth far more than the textbooks, but that’s a different blog.
By the next semester, most every class member had a smartphone, so I started investigating these as a way to increase active, engaged learning.  
During that semester, I could see the explosion of students using their mobile devices to check Facebook or other apps both in and out of class.
At first I asked them to put their devices away, but being the only lecturer in the university who stopped the learners so I became unpopular very quickly.
Back then, some new “classroom engagement” apps had come out, so I tested them, and although the apps pulled the learners attention onto the same focus, they still disrupted the energy and flow in the class.
Also, I struggled to see which students responded and if they understood the learning material and I could only give them one question at a time.
One of of my university software licenses included use of a polling app called Qualtrics, so I tried that because I could ask several questions as I instructed the class.
Qualtrics is a powerful and quite complicated tool, so I spent more time learning to use it and teaching the students how to use it (on their mobile devices) than time I actually spent using it.
One day after trying Qualtrics, I was sharing with my coach, “Wouldn’t it be nice to just have some thing that is easy to use and yet be comfortable for the Engaging Screenagers to use for learning?”
My coach asked me, “How much value would the solution have then?”
She was right, if something is too easy, we don’t place a great deal of value on it, do we?
It’s when with continued effort and engagement that we build the most fulfillment in moments of our life.

Give continued effort and engagement to get fulling moments.

You can see examples of screen innovations for Optimal Experiences at JOIN THE CURATION: Google+.
Remember to engage tomorrow.
Following with you.
Keep it simple.
All the Best, Warren
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Dr Warren LINGER © 2017
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