Pedagogical Models for Compelling Learning Experiences with Technology

Abstract

Technology offers tremendous opportunities to improve learning experiences and outcomes. However, we should be striving for technology-enhanced learning that not only brings more to learners, but demands more of them as well. Learning experiences that strive for significant impacts should challenge learners to solve problems, conduct investigations, strategize courses of action, or construct knowledge through personal projects. Such experiences can bring out the aesthetic potential of learning, leading to transformative outcomes. This paper argues for the importance of considering this aesthetic potential to make learning compelling, and describes four instructional projects developed in my own work in recent years. These projects used four different, well-researched pedagogical models as the basis for their approaches.