Learning and Leading

By Liz Keren-Kolb
Engage, Enhance, and

Find out what these terms really mean when you integrate technology

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Educators often say that technol- ogy is more than a gimmick or add-on, and that it should engage, enhance, or extend learning in ways that traditional tools do not. Yet we seldom stop to define these terms, and they can be confusing, especially for teachers and preservice teachers.

Recently, I collaborated on an English language arts and technology integration assignment with a literacy instructor. We asked a group of our student teachers to create technology-enhanced performance assessments for eighth graders who had been involved in book clubs. We told the student teachers that the technology must “engage, enhance, or extend” the learning in some profound way that traditional strategies could not.

After the performance assessments were handed in, we found the student teachers’ definitions of engaged, enhanced, or extended learning varied greatly. For example, one student teacher wanted to have his eighth graders create a Prezi where the students would pick a character from a novel and use quotes from the book to explain the character’s position on technology in society (the book club’s overarching question was about technology in society).

The student teacher explained that this was “true” technology integration because the eighth graders were “engaged” in the excitement of using an innovative tool like Prezi to create their presentations.

The literacy instructor and I real-
ized that while yes, using technology
in and of itself is almost always a bit
more motivating or engaging, it does

Engage Enhance

not necessarily mean that students will engage more in their understanding of the learning goals. Then the literacy teacher turned to me and asked me the difference between engaging via technology and enhancing with it. Is one better than the other, she wondered. Should all technology integration engage, enhance, and extend to be effective integration?

I realized that I needed to be explicit with the student teachers as well as with my teaching colleagues about the difference between engaging, enhancing, and extending learning when integrating technology.

While we have studies that focus on the importance of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge, we rarely define the difference between engaging and enhancing or discuss whether one is better than the other when using technology.

That’s why I feel it’s important to understand what we mean by these words. Below I have defined the terms engagement, enhancement, and extension as they relate to technology integration projects:

Engagement. The teacher is trying to find a way to motivate or interest disengaged students.

Enhancement. This is using technology to develop understanding of learning goals that could not have been accomplished without those tools.

Extension. The technology brings learning outside the classroom walls and into students’ everyday lives, where they can continue to grow after they leave school.