I hear the word “engagement” daily, at least.
- “I want to introduce new technologies into my classroom to promote student engagement”
- “If we want this project to be successful, we’ll need to make sure the engagement of the staff”
- “We’re looking for an approach that really encourages engagement”
cc: flickr.com/photos/iloveakira
The goal of having engaged learners, an engaged staff, an engaged team working on a project is an great one, and once met, there hopefully be success and happiness. I’d suggest, however, that there’s great value in moving the goalposts a bit, and considering the difference between engagement and investment. I think the difference is more than semantics, and more than just a tweak. I think that if the goal is “engagement”, the project will hopefully be successful, but if the goal is “investment”, the project surely will be.
A proposed continuum (and the spacing is deliberate):
awareness – interest —- engagement ———- investment
Thoughts?
These are terms pretty indiscriminately bandied about as buzzwords. To me, awareness means cognizant of the existence, but that does not mean having enough knowledge to have an intelligent conversation about it. Interest means has done or is doing the research, but yet participating. Engagement means participating without motivation such that if something else comes along, then egress is likely. Investment means motivated participation such that unlikely to stop easily because so much effort has been put into it.
Is that anywhere close?
Thanks @sneezyph. I think with investment comes ownership too.