Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

In this series we explore Powerful Learning, a set of principles to guide educators designing learning experiences that engage the hearts and minds of learners and incorporate technology in ways that contribute to closing the Digital Learning Gap. In this second post, we explore how Powerful Learning is authentic and challenging, share research that grounds these two principles, and provide resources to support your own learning and teaching practices.

Want to know how to create meaningful and Engaging Learning Experiences? Check 6 ways to create meaningful and Engaging Learning Experiences.

E-tivities are frameworks for enabling active and participative online learning by individuals and groups. E-tivities are important for the online teaching and learning world because they deploy useful, well-rehearsed principles and pedagogies for learning as well as your choice of networked technologies. They focus on the learners- the people I call the participants, who are contributing, providing, reworking, interpreting, combining most of the knowledge. They overturn the idea that learning depends on one big expert and his/her conveying of knowledge. They are based on the strong idea that knowledge is constructed by learners through and with others.

Authentic learning is a term used to describe instructional strategies that are designed to connect the subjects students are taught in school and university to the real world.

Authentic learning experiences help students understand the relevance of what they’re learning and how they can apply their skills in the professional world. Rather than discussing hypothetical situations or memorizing information, students are given the opportunity to put their skills and knowledge to practical use in the development of solutions or products that will be of immediate benefit to their communities and the world at large.

LearningExperienceDesign.com describes Learning Experience Design (LX Design) as, “the process of creating learning experiences that enable the learner to achieve the desired learning outcome in a human centered and goal oriented way.”

This page from sixredmarbles.com takes a more utilitarian approach, explaining that LX Design is “a synthesis of instructional design, educational pedagogy, neuroscience, social sciences, design thinking, and UI/UX”.