Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Teachers College Educational ...

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Harnessing the Power of Emotionally Cogent Stimuli for Optimal Learning Sydney M. Savion, George Washington University, 805 21st Street Northwest Washington, DC Email: ssavion@wmail.gwu.edu Daniel J. Glisczinski, University of Minnesota Duluth, 1049 University Drive Duluth, MN Email: dglisczi@d.umn.edu Abstract: The U.S. market for self-paced e-learning is expected to balloon to $24.2 billion by 2015 (Adkins, 2011). Coupled with the torrent of mobile devices, which now outnumber human beings, academia and corporate America stand at a unique intersection of opportunity to engage in best practice instructional design for optimal elearning. As the 21st century market place finds itself in the midst of a nexus of the most connected populace ever, the opportunity and perhaps responsibility belongs to the learning professionals to design neuroscientifically guided, emotionally cogent e-learning programs, so that the most connected populace ever will feel itself moved to cross the threshold of ubiquitous communication to ubiquitous optimal learning. This paper proposes when adult learners feel so moved to text, message, and access courses because of their powerfully moving nature, e-learning will cross the threshold of program relevance, and in doing so, mobilize learning through emotionally cogent stimuli. Corporate America expends an estimated $110 billion annually on employee learning and development (Rivera & Paradise, 2006). According to a recent report by Ambient Insight market research firm, the U.S. market for self-paced e-learning is expected to balloon to $24.2 billion by 2015 (Adkins, 2011). This taken together with the torrent mobile devices in which mobile devices now outnumber human beings, twentyfirst century corporate education stands at a unique intersection of opportunity to engage in best practice instructional design for optimal e-learning. Now a days, digital natives (those born into the digital age) and digital immigrants (those assimilated to the digital age) alike can be readily observed making use of their mobile devices in the bookstore, in the fitness center, at the cafe, and even in the lavatory. While it has become evident that much of today’s experience is bursting with digital interactions. What is less evident, however, is whether higher education or corporate America understands enough about cognition to cross over the traditional pedagogy threshold of influencing learning to more emotionally cogent stimulating methods that powerfully promote optimal learning and performance, especially through the use of mobile devices. The high degree of expenditure on learning and development is not surprising, given its vital role in maintaining high performance and an effective organization. Interestingly, a substantial amount of education and training is designed on the premise of behaviorism theory, suggesting that learning is external to the individual and that the individual is passive in the learning process. The theory of behaviorism ignores the internal aspects of learning and fails to genuinely engage the learner. This is significant, given the increased distance placed between the learner and instructor as a result of a mounting reliance on e-learning pedagogy. And also evidence that only 51% of daily adult learning episodes occur at home or in the learner’s natural environment (Vavoula, 2005). Even as far back as the 1900s it was found the theory of behaviorism had inherent limitations, hence the emergence of cognitivism. Since the seminal works of Jean Piaget, cognitive theorists have believed that learning encompasses gradually acquiring and constructing knowledge in which a learner processes and stores information. Moreover, cognitive psychologists maintain that learning involves the use of memory, stimulus and thinking. Now, as we take into account learning in transition via mobile devices, constructivism emerges as the best fit learning theory. Cooper (1993) asserts that learners interpret the 59
information and the world according to their personal reality; they learn by observation, processing and interpretation, and then personalize the information into personal knowledge. Learners learn best when they can contextualize what they learn, both for immediate application and to acquire personal meaning. Mobile learning facilitates personalized learning because learning (and collaboration) from any place and at any time allows the learning to be contextualized (Attewell & Savill-Smith, 2004, p.6). With a mobile learning opportunity in mind, as best practice is being informed and perhaps even defined by emergent research findings in educational neuroscience, corporate e-learning may be wise to invest in adult learning strategies that harness the power of what neuroscience is calling "Emotionally Cogent Stimuli--or ECS". The Black Coffee Brand Expressionists define Emotionally Cogent Stimuli (ECS) as an object, sensation, situation or other stimulus that triggers an emotional response. Anecdotally, as advertised, they help companies design meaningful brand experiences by helping organizations improve how they deliver value. Likewise, as practitioners and scholars of learning it is our social responsibility to design instruction that harnesses the power of emotionally cogent stimuli for the learners optimal learning experience. Neuroscience has recently identified that what moves our learners to mobilize communication in the book store, fitness center, cafe, and even lavatory are called emotionally competent stimuli (ECS) which have been described as the most powerfully processed external stimuli ever measured (Immordino-Yang & Faeth, 2010; Medina, 2008; Zull, 2011).Specifically, emotionally competent stimuli appear to excite learning by engage the brain’s reticular activating system, a network of nerve pathways connecting lower and higher brain regions. These powerful stimuli, when circularly relevant construct and reinforce neuronal pathways between sensory and analytical regions in the brain (Immordino-Yang & Faeth, 2010; Medina, 2008; Willis, 2010). Research also suggests that the brain’s cerebral cortex is responsible for conscious and non-conscious thought processes which direct volition and action (Feinstein, 2006). In this way, ECS in higher education and corporate e-learning programs can work tacitly or overtly to help learners feel that they have to access their mobile devices to learn more in the presence of a community of practice. Such program designs will indeed signal a departure from the longstanding, behavioristic premises upon which much instruction has been practiced. And still brain research is suggesting that behaviorism alone is insufficient for activating the reticular activating system’s green light that signals emotionally competent stimuli to be encoded by positive neurotransmitters and then wired into the prefrontal, analytical cortex. This is a different kind of mobile learning pedagogy in a prevailing digital era. It offers neuroscientific insights into the physiology of learning. So as the 21st century higher education and corporate America market place finds itself in the midst of a nexus of the most connected populace ever, the opportunity—and perhaps responsibility—belongs to the staff in academia and corporate America to design neuroscientifically guided, emotionally cogent elearning programs, so that the most connected populace ever will feel itself moved to cross the threshold of ubiquitous communication to ubiquitous optimal learning. So to what extent are our e-learning programs rich and moving? So moving that they must be acted upon even across the formerly sacred thresholds of the lunchroom and the lavatory, where few electronic academic exchanges are observed. This paper’s proposition is that when adult learners feel so moved to text, message, and access courses because of their powerfully moving nature from these telltale spaces, higher education and corporate elearning will cross the threshold of program relevance, and in doing so, mobilize 21 st century learning through emotionally cogent stimuli. 60
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Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Te
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Table of Contents Math Strategies i
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Harnessing the Power of Emotionally
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Think Facts introduces four charact
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Guidelines for an Online Networking
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Mode S = Synchronous A=Asynchronous
Page 13 and 14: Investigating Potential Factors to
Page 15 and 16: Investigating the Effects of Choice
Page 17 and 18: Videogames in Institutional Practic
Page 19 and 20: Youth in the Digital Age: Digital M
Page 21 and 22: Augmenting The Arrival: Students’
Page 23 and 24: Connected to Word Problems: Improvi
Page 25 and 26: ased approach. Future research may
Page 27 and 28: MOOCs, Open Education, and Implicat
Page 29 and 30: Promoting Healthy Eating Habits Thr
Page 31 and 32: Figure 2: Monster Appetite in actio
Page 33 and 34: This year, the first participant gr
Page 35 and 36: Figure 2: The Aesthetigraph represe
Page 37 and 38: Digital Modeling Artifacts as Geome
Page 39 and 40: Using Weblogs to Increase Language
Page 41 and 42: Total 3 Advanced Performance Level
Page 43 and 44: “Media Literacy in Action: Using
Page 45 and 46: Learning Science Systems with Graph
Page 47 and 48: Liu, L., & Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (200
Page 49 and 50: Applying Physics to the Real World:
Page 51 and 52: Credibility of Culturally Situated
Page 53 and 54: notion that similarity with the use
Page 55 and 56: Duncan, H., Tan, J. (2012). A Visua
Page 57 and 58: Online Learning Environments in Hig
Page 59 and 60: Exploration of concepts to facilita
Page 61 and 62: Exploring the Intersection of Forma
Page 63: Barab, S. & Squire, K. (2004). Desi
Page 67 and 68: #phdchat: a community of practice o
Page 69 and 70: A Difficult Balance: Regulating Cyb
Page 71 and 72: References Bethel School District v
Page 73 and 74: that children’s photographs were
Page 75 and 76: A variety of data sources were coll
Page 77 and 78: control and mastery increased in vi
Page 79 and 80: Design of computer assisted tools f
Page 81 and 82: Figure 2: Interactive functions of
Page 83 and 84: User Experiences with Avatar Custom
Page 85 and 86: Design Patterns for Promoting Self-
Page 87 and 88: Cooperative Inquiry in Designing Te
Page 89 and 90: Implications Our work with CI exten
Page 91 and 92: References Allen, E., & Seaman, J.
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