Engage In Your Life, don't let it pass you by

5-for Curating Authentic Discussions   Engaging Screenagers A few years ago I was asked to teach a business communication course in my university for junior level (year 3) undergraduates. That course textbook was designed to teach students how to write business correspondence, (letters, memos, [remember those?] etc.) and give presentations. Other than the obvious fact that business students had been already learning these skills for the last 3 years, the focus of that textbook was a little behind the times. As with many university courses, this one was focused on academically assessable tasks that are gradable skills and not focused on helping students learn to work together and solve authentic problems. Reality check—Isn’t business communication mostly about working together and solving authentic problems? (As opposed to discussions about made-up and out-dated case studies.) As a professional speaker for Fred Pryor Seminars and Careertrack Seminars in the USA, I

3 Stories:  Transfer Curations Into Work  Engaging Screenagers A while back I lead my “Execution for Results” training seminar for an entrepreneurial friend  of mine and his employees. Their training included communication effectiveness, time management, project management, negotiation skills, etc. In that training session we used  eWorkbooks  ( Google Forms with the training slides   as well as interactive questions , curating links and tasks , example images and videos, etc. which trainees (Engaging Screenagers)  completed using   their mobile devices ) for interactive learning.  (optimal engagement) When trainees use  eWorkbooks  to answer questions, interact, etc. while I trained, and after they submitted their answers, they would get their learning sent to their inbox so they could be reminded of their learning  Moments of Growth .  (optimal engagement) Something interesting happened that day. (Actually it happens whenever we use  eWorkbooks  in training.) Oft

5 Steps:  Group Feedback and Comparing  Engaging Screenagers When you were in school did you ever complete a group project for a class? Wouldn’t it be interesting if a tool like an eWorkbook could make a great difference?   Isn’t it interesting how educators ask students to work in groups but tell them little about how to work in groups?  (junk engagement) It seems education is not the only genre, as when I worked in Human Resources we struggled with forming and motivating groups. Way back then we tried several different methods and didn’t have the results we wanted. Moving into the classroom where I taught communications, again I tried several methods to motivate groups and still struggled as the results were not what I would settle for with my learners. In previous blogs I’ve mentioned using  eWorkbooks  ( Google Forms with the teaching slides   as well as interactive questions , curating links and tasks , example images and videos, etc. which Engaging Screenagers