Week 9 Discussion: Attention Getter

A general overview of the discussion:
In week 9 we broke out in groups with each member of the group to post a quote they identified with a significant ideas from the reading. We posted our quote to start a threaded discussion for the rest of the group to discussion the quote in less than 250 words. After everyone in the group participated in the dicussion, the person who posted the quote had the last word in no more than 250 word response about what they are now thinking about the issue and their reaction to what the other people said about the post.

Linda Gillmore quoted a sentence out of our reading, "Gagne (1985) lists grabbing the attention of learners as the first of his nine events of instruction, which he proposed long before e-learning earned its current popularity." It seems that most instructors struggle with daunting task of getting the learners attention in a creative fashion that will motivate the learner to stay engaged in the learning.

Here's my most valuable contribution to the discussion:
Engaging the learner's attention is crucial. In the Marines, the first things we were taught when we delivered classes was to create an "attention getter." The interesting thing was that the "attention getter" didn't have to relate to the topic, it could have been an off topic joke. What was important was grabbing their attention as a means of shifting their focus from "what am I going to make for dinner," to "its time to put everything aside and focus on learning. "

What I discovered was beginning with a topic related story or question was the most effective, I always enjoyed the "attention getter" and was motivated to attend a class just to hear "the getter." It also helps the instructor to shift into the "teaching" mode as well as with bringing their energy level up a notch.

I also think we can think about how our "attention getters" can relate to our Common Instructional Values:

1. Active? engaging, exploratory
2. Supportive? fun
3. Contextual? relevant
4. Social? discourse, discussion

Explanation for why this was my best contribution:
I think tying our discussion in with our Common Instructional Values helps us to reconnect with what we are trying to accomplish with learning in our course. I believe if we can answer yes when connecting to our Common Learning Values the chances are good that we are approaching the learning design in a manner that will lead to successful learning.