Week 6: Personal Definition of Interactivity

Interactivity –  The foundation of effective learning,  it must be instructional not just appealing,  it promotes engagement, and engagement promotes learning.

Mark Prensky has an interesting perspective on the idea that todays students think and process information differently.  I agree that students today learn differently than yesterdays students, but that has been true from generation to generation.  What I question is if students have always been bored with the learning structure, but have put up with it, because they wanted to learn. Older generations didn’t have the options that are available to students today.  Maybe students today feel enpowered to say “engage me or enrage me”, because they know they don’t have to be tuned in to get relevant information, they have it at their fingertips.

Prensky suggests that technological advancements have changed our kids level of engagement, he states that creating engagement is about ideas, but hasn’t that always been true.  What does technology have to do with engagement.  After reviewing all of the modules, I wasn’t all that engaged and they were all presented with technology.   Interactivity has always been a key component in teaching successfully. 

There is no doubt that digital technology has changed the world.  Todays students are different in their literacy with the computer, but fundamentally they are the same.   Learning designers need to learn to use new technology to present the information in new interactive ways; ways that will engage the learner.

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