Increasing Student Engagement and Retention Using Social Technologies

Scatliff Meier ChapterMy colleague, Dr. Andrea Meier and I have a chapter out now about strengths-based learning in the classroom. It’s published in Increasing Student Engagement and Retention Using Social Technologies: Facebook, E-Portfolios and Other Social Networking Services edited by Charles Wankel and Patrick Blessinger. Want to implement strengths-based learning in the classroom? Check out the website, 21st Century Engaged Learning, that we developed around the chapter for more ideas. 

The book examines new ideas and research on emerging technologies used in higher education to increase learner engagement among students in higher education institutions in an epoch of increasing globalization and diversity. It encompasses both theoretical and empirical evidence across a wide range of disciplines and cultures, including both teaching and administrative applications. The book was published in November 2012. 

About the Chapter

Our chapter is titled, Holistic learner engagement for success in the Innovation Age: Portfolio, strengths-based, and collaborative learning strategies.  The chapter is founded on three assumptions about the knowledge and skill sets that everyone–educators, undergraduates and graduate students alike–will need if they are to be competent participants in the rapidly evolving, 21st century “Innovation Age.”

  1. Students must understand the ongoing transformations required by societies grounded in practices of the 20th century Industrial Age as they confront the emergent systems and structures of the Internet-driven Innovation Age.
  2. They must acquire and practice the collaboration skills they will need to be successful in the e-networked environment. Participation in Internet social networks immerse users in cognitive complexity. Students need to develop a navigational compass to minimize the risk of chronic distractability and information overwhelm.
  3. Finally, students will be better able to function in these conditions if they understand their psychological strengths and learn how to use them strategically to enjoy more success navigating across multiple social networks.