Learning isn’t supposed to be fun.
Posted by: milobo in Ed_Tech, tech_niques, tags: fun, integration
So here it is, 3 weeks after Halloween and a bowl of leftover candy still sits on my counter. I’ve picked through the remains now and then and what’s left behind is the stuff that makes “junk food” sound like a compliment. Stuff that’s full of sugar and artificial flavors and tooth-rotting, chewy goodness. Stuff that would make a dentist’s early retirement dreams a reality.
Stuff that makes Halloween a fun change from the regular routine but wouldn’t do much to provide for a healthy, balanced diet.
Good thing it only happens once a year.
Looking at that bowl of candy, I think about what sometimes happens when teachers think about adding technology to their regular classroom routine. “It’ll help make learning fun,” they think as they usher students into a computer lab with little thought to the outcomes and goals they’d normally employ to design a learning activity. Sometimes, there’s a new web tool or site they’ve seen that looks like it might hold a student’s interest. Even more often, it’s the end of a unit and there’s a day or two to be filled, so using technology to create a brochure or slide show seems like the ticket.
Like the empty calories contained in my leftover candy, this type of use doesn’t give much thought to the nutritional balance students need to grow into strong and healthy learners. Playing games or throwing images into a slideshow doesn’t necessarily translate into learning. Sure, it’s fun, but unless it is backed by an understanding of the intended outcomes, it won’t hold you or your students over for long. And that’s part of the challenge I meet every day in my job. Helping teachers move past the quick fixes it seems technology can provide to thinking about what they really want their students to understand. Making a little sugary tech-goodness into a four course meal where dessert is part of the package, but isn’t the main focus.
So, what’s the secret to a perfectly seasoned technology lesson? When I co-plan with teachers, I ask them to use these three basics:
- Begin with the end in mind. It’s rare when a good lesson begins with the technology. If you identify the tool before you are clear on your outcome, you’ll end up with a lot of fun, but not much learning. I often ask teachers to share with me what they hope students will learn or be able to do as a result of their activity. I listen for specific words that cue into their goals (see Bloomin’ Web Tools for an explanation) and then pick a tool that matches that goal. Having teachers document their outcome makes for a much better match between activity and tech tool.
- Make sure the curriculum drives the process. Once you’ve matched outcome and tool, the real work begins. Next, comes defining the process students will use and the benchmarks that keep students on track. I’ve seen the best ideas come to a dismal end when teachers don’t clearly define their vision to their students. Share with students what your goals are and let them know what you see as an acceptable end product by using a rubric or defining a S.M.A.R.T goal. Most importantly, make sure your standards focus more on the curriculum than on the esthetics. While good design is important, unless you’re teaching a design class it’s more important that students show clear understanding of the content.
- Reflection is essential. What a shame it is when students spend a significant amount of classroom time creating a product, only to have it turned in, graded, and returned without any peer feedback or culminating reflection. Any time you use technology, you should plan in time for students to reflect on their learning. Give them a chance to publish or post their products. Ask them to rate and comment on the work of their peers. Let them share what they learned. Without this final step, they’ll leave the table without feeling fully satisfied.
In short, make sure your technology integration efforts turn into more than an empty snack. A love of learning blended in with a dose of curiosity is what we’re trying to awaken in students. Not mindless entertainment, but mindful purpose. And if it happens to be a little fun at the same time, then that’s really sweet.
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November 23rd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I’m not sure I totally agree with your title (I’ll have to think on that one, I think it depends on how we define “fun”), but I love your three basics. I think these are three vital when planning any lesson, whether or not it incorporates technology!
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November 23rd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Your analogy packs a creative punch! Sugary treats and technology for its own sake are both deceptively alluring but both are counterproductive distractions. Your suggestions are powerful reminders for educators who use technology in instruction. By keeping the objectives in mind, using rubrics, and encouraging/requiring careful reflection, educators will focus on learning and not on playing. It’s too easy to think that just because students are “engaged,” technology-rich lessons are successful. The truth is, unless students learn from the activities and reach the objectives of the lesson, engagement is nothing more than an entertaining form of babysitting.
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November 23rd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I like the post and agree with the points but might have problems with the title as well.
I think lots of learning is fun and I’d say that most of that flash people claim as tech integration isn’t fun anyway. Kids see it as fun because it’s new and novelty gives you a few points but that’s gone in no time and the kids are bored (or doing something else).
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November 23rd, 2008 at 8:50 pm
@JackieB and @Tom
You know, I thought about changing the title once I finished writing the post, but left it in the end because it’s the thought that got the whole post started. I guess a better way to say it would have been “Learning isn’t only about fun.”
I’m all for getting students excited about learning and for finding ways to get them engaged in the curriculum. I want them to enjoy every day they spend learning in a classroom where I have influence. But, I shy away from tagging a learning activity with the word fun. To me, the word is too tied up in a lack of seriousness about the process of learning to be used to describe what I hope students get out of an activity.
Fun is a usually a side effect of a well-planned lesson, but when it becomes the goal I’m worry that we’ve moved one more step away from teaching students to love learning for the right reasons. Not only because it’s fun, but because ultimately, it’s good for you.
If you haven’t done so before, make sure to check out Tom’s blog, Bionic Teaching, linked in his reply above. Now there’s a guy who gets engaged learning (and who makes it fun in the process).
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November 23rd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Well the title worked in that it got my attention.
I agree with you in that the line between engagement and entertainment has gotten pretty blurry lately and I think that’s a bad thing. It also seems teachers are often a very poor judge of what is “fun” for their students so setting out with that as a goal can be doubly bad. It makes sense that the goal of lessons should be learning. Engagement impacts retention so it makes sense to take that into account. It’d be interesting to see if “fun” (supposing you could define it) impacts learning- anyone up for creating a research study?
I appreciate the plug. Although lately I’m not sure I’ve got much worth reading. I am in a weird place in my career and as a result the blog is also in an odd place.
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November 27th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Thank you for addressing the problem of planning and thoroughly talking about how to plan lessons effectively. As for the title, for me the title might be “Learning OBJECTIVES aren’t supposed to be fun.” While we all want our lessons to be fun, the fact that students like a lesson or have fun is a by product of the learning taking place. Fun is not a reason for teaching a lesson, the lesson must be rooted in learning (but let’s agree that learning is fun and technology is engaging).
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November 28th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Agree…
I have had my kids write down the ten experiences in life that they learned the most from, and almost always none of them were “fun.” I like to have fun in the classroom but often keep it separate from the lesson. If it ends up being a byproduct of the lesson so be it.
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November 30th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I don’t know how many times I have had to explain that my use of technology in my classroom is that of a tool. Yes, it is more fun to write a story on a blog, but it is much more useful when students have the opportunity to critique each others posts. The outcome of the lesson must be the focus, not how to integrate it with the computer lab.
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