From Disengagement to Engagement

From disengagement to engagement: How to inspire teenagers during online learning.

DISENGAGEMENT:

✨Have the students sit and listen a full day in front of their computers = passive, tired passengers instead of active, self-driven learners.

✨Speak with a monotonous voice, show no face-expressions.

✨Don’t laugh and above all, don’t tell any kind of jokes. Don’t activate endorphins.

✨Give tasks that have no relevance whatsoever in the young person’s life.

ENGAGEMENT:

✨Use storytelling as a tool. Inspire them with captivating stories.

✨CONNECT each time with each student -> oxytocin, serotonin

✨LAUGH

✨Think hooks, trailers, and the GAMIFICATION of learning. Make small, bite-sized modules that all start and end with something spectacular = dopamine. Think of how youth motivates themselves hours on end in front of games on their screen. Use the concept to motivate learning!

✨Even better; collaborate with teacher colleagues and assign young people exciting, real-life, authentic challenges/problems that they have to solve. Set up a HUB where they can check-in. Have them practice project management. Dopamine drives inquiry, curiosity, and motivation.