Visual Learning Update on the Past

Forgot to list my article, Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom, from ERIC Digest, which was written by Charles Bonwell and James Eison in 1991--21 years ago. What interested me was the emphasis placed on engaging students and moving beyond the lecture format, which echoes what we hear on a regular basis in 2012. "Students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation," they say. They talk about the resistance to change among teachers, and how critical it is for teachers to be supported by administration so they're not working in isolation. Importantly, they stress the necessity of adopting strategies to promote learning, like visuals, so that students retain meaningful information. I found it hugely ironic that I could have slapped 2012 on that 1991 year and essentially had a current paper. Of course, we would add a section on tech tools that enhance learning. The task going forward, in my view, is creating the grounded research that supports that it works!  Teachers, now more than ever with the emphasis on test results, need proof that utilizing technology does in fact boost learning outcomes, because resistance to change is human nature.