Karen Hume: Tuned Out

I recently watched Karen Hume on elluminate and might just look for her book "Tuned Out". She gets my attention with a few things in the interview. She said her dad always told her that when people give you two choices, you should look for the third way. I love this as there seems to be a large divide between the "web 2.0 folks" and the "traditional teachers". Maybe between the two is where we aim? Or is that like saying the earth is kind of round?

She is a proponent of making the time to share classroom and teacher successes and believes in the power of web 2.0 to motivate teachers to do amazing work. She talks about the importance of creative outlets for staff and students in schools. This mirrors the writing of Richard Florida in "The Rise of the Creative Class" and others who talk about the importance of creativity in job satisfaction.

One of her main ideas is that teacher and student engagement are parallel factors. While her book is primarily on student engagement, I would love to hear more about her ideas on how to address issues of teacher engagement.

She mentions the importance of strength based learning. Guess I'll have to read the book to get her particular slant on constructivism in the classroom. If you do read it, you are given access to her web site which contains many more case studies and activities.

She gives five components for engaged learners:

1. competence
2. creativity
3. community
4. context
5. challenge

It's interesting to compare hers to what our school division (the SPSD) has identified as the main components of engagement.

1. relevance
2. belonging
3. competence
4. potency

I am proud of what our division has done to improve student engagement (renewal). This process is surely an on-going one: the work is hard but rewarding. I'm looking forward to reading her book.

I have included a video, basically a promo for her book below.