Create Intimacy. Size matters. Size matters in our choice of mates and politicians. It also matters to students taking our courses online. Regardless of the content we create for students, the size of their computer screen will determine how engaged students are and whether they like or remember what they saw. Large screens […]
Create Presence. Hola. Hi. G’day mate. How was your weekend at the cottage? A single word on a page is enough to establish its personality and activate stereotypes we attach to it. We feel differently toward the word “Hola” than we do the phrase “G’day mate”, and we feel emotionally close to the […]
Create Fidelity. My grandpa lost his hearing as he got older. He felt alone in a room filled with people because he could not follow conversations. Sound was for him a powerful connection to the people around him. We are creating online courses that our students will hear through speakers and see on […]
Create Team. What happens when you give eight bathroom plungers to a group of teenagers in a classroom? You may ask why a teacher would give plungers to teenagers in the first place. Good question. In an attempt to facilitate teamwork a few years ago, I divided my classroom into eight groups. Each […]
Create Arousal. War and Sex capture our attention. Negative and arousing events both jolt our mental processing system. They cause us to forget what we are currently doing and force us to focus our attention on whatever follows. Negative experiences demand our attention because they are consequential. They demand we quickly consider how […]
Create Gender. Psychologists know stereotypes are one of the most pervasive aspects of human thinking. We expect people to act according to how they look. How we look determines how people act toward us. Stereotypes make a complex world simpler, even if they cause us to miss critical individual differences. They give us […]
Create Persuasion. Mao Tse Tung said power grows out the barrel of a gun. Other people say the pen is mightier than the sword. And yet, if the pen is mightier than the sword, then why do actions speak louder than words? Why do we try to persuade people with guns and pens […]
Create Motion. Robert Biggs was hiking in California, when he observed a mother bear with her cub. As he watched, a mountain lion jumped on him. Biggs fought back and the cougar screamed but did not let go. The mother bear showed up and attacked the cat. The two animals fought for a […]
Create Rubrics. Google is smarter than you. You are no longer the doorway students pass through to access information. That is a fact. Face it. So, what do you offer beyond what Google provides? How do you add value to your content knowledge? What is your role in a student’s life? Are […]
Create Story. Aristotle knew that humans love to learn. He said that “to learn gives the liveliest pleasure”. He included the theme of learning in his discussions on drama, because he knew that to learn is to be entertained. When we are fully engaged in a moment of learning, we lose sense of […]