Engaged Learning (Chapter 11 from Microsoft's "The Connected Learning Community: Technology Roadmap")

Recent advances in telecommunications technology have shifted classroom learning from a passive mode to a new engaged model in which students are doers as well as thinkers. The engaged learning model is based on the simple belief that students of all ages learn better when they are active participants in what they are studying. Being actively engaged in the learning process means students are making their own decisions, thinking critically, and learning within contexts that are meaningful to them. When students are presented with authentic, challenging, and multidisciplinary tasks and allowed to explore a subject from their own particular point of view, they grasp the subject matter better.

Today's computer and telecommunications technologies are powerful tools that can be used to support engaged learning. This provides constant opportunities for active participation in learning. Specifically, they provide opportunities for::

• Authentic, project-based, investigative learning
• Access to global information resources
• Increased interaction among students, teachers, and the global information community
• Transformations in the roles of students and teachers

Teachers in engaged learning classrooms serve as facilitators of learning. Rather than spending the entire class dictating notes on the subject of the day, they help students explore with the aid of a variety of teaching tools.

The engaged learning classroom is a stimulating multidimensional learning environment in which technology adds variety of presentation and a greater depth and breadth to satisfy individual curiosities.

For more information about the engaged learning model see "Meaningful Engaged Learning" at http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/engaged.htm

**Please not that this information is just an example of how collaborative projects can be accomplished  and is not the criteria for the project we will be doing.