The “Aha” Moment in Adult Education Trends

The Aha moment for myself when reading the two different articles on adult education trends has to do with Game-based learning. I never thought of education as necessarily something that could be made to be fun or enjoyable. When I went to school, it always felt like something that I had to do more than something I wanted to do. As an adult, my opinion of education has changed to something I now want to do and more importantly realize its something that employers require from their employees.

When I read different articles on Game-based learning I realized that this form of adult education is not just for the classroom,  but now commonly used by companies to get more productivity and competitiveness out of their employees. This type of learning happens without the participants even being aware that it is happening. Learning can happen simply by participating. The use of cell phones and tablets has become so mainstream that these games can be continually updated live. This allows for continual participation whether you are a competitive person or not. The more enjoyable a company is to work for, the better their employee retention will become.

Implications to Trends in Adult Education

The two trends that my partner and I chose were Game-based learning (GBL) and Project-based learning (PBL).

I incorporated game based learning this year into my classroom. I currently use it on days when my students look exhausted or overwhelmed. If they have had a couple of exams that day in other classes, I try to break the day up by playing Kahoot. On the last day of class before exams,  I have made the day optional for my students. The ones that choose to attend class that day play Kahoot,  for a chance to have their name on a Bryan Baeumler bobble head toy I have.  I take a picture of the student,in front of the overhead screen, with their name and score holding the bobblehead. They really get into it and it makes for an enjoyable time for the students to learn but also to compete against each other.

Project based learning is one in which I would like to do more of over the coming years. Currently my students have a cooler/freezer project they must wire, start and set all of the operational parameters to keep running properly. They are marked as group work and for the most part I hear nothing but good comments on the experience. I need to incorporate more of the other days when we currently have lectures into more hands on projects. My goal is to not lecture in this class in the future, but to have a different project that covers each skill set that the government requires from my apprenticeship students. I have five intakes per school year and my goal is to incorporate at least one new project based learning assignment into that class per year. If it doesn’t work properly at first, I will have four other intakes to perfect it before introducing another new one to the course.

Game-based Learning and Trends

I chose game based learning as the trend in adult education that I thought was most innovative and interesting. Game based learning is an exercise or task that incorporates a gaming type system of rewards and incentives to make learning interesting and competitive amongst your students. Game based learning works for visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners.

My partner chose Project-based learning as her trend that was most exciting to her in adult education. Project based learning is not a new technology and has been around for centuries. Learning through experience has been an acknowledged way of adult learning. The important aspects to Project-based learning is that the project must first have a question that is motivates the students and secondly the students must come up with a meaningful answer to that question. This trend definitely affects my students at S.A.I.T,  completing a project is a big part of their learning.