Proceedings of the 8th World Conference on Future of Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Teacher Absenteeism Post-COVID-19
Dr. Jame Cará Junior
ABSTRACT:
In contemporary educational discourse, the notion of engagement has been conflated with entertainment or amusement, leading to the misconception that presenting content in a fun and entertaining manner inherently fosters learning. This misunderstanding is particularly strong in e-learning and has elevated this biased view of engagement above didactic efficacy, thereby overshadowing the actual combination of factors in promoting effective learning experiences. By contrast, the concept of presence (Cará, 2011), characterized by a multifaceted interplay of cognitive processes and socio-affective factors, includes all aspects of how engagement is associated with eustress (“positive” stress), but without the same bias. Besides “presence” not being soaked in the euphoric discourse about how fun and entertaining education would have to be, it also entails other factors in learning, such as power relations and identity. Presence refers to the effect, not the state, of immersion in a given moment, involving executive functions related to focus and attention, emotional connection and resonance, social interaction, and sense of belonging. It encompasses both quantitative and qualitative aspects, acknowledging that individuals vary in their degree and quality of presence, and a more intense and high-quality presence correlates with a rich, vivid and effective learning experience. Through theoretical insights and practical examples, this presentation will elucidate how advanced didactics can be applied to design and promote experiences that optimize presence, redefining what we mean by immersive learning environment. Ultimately, this presentation makes a case for embracing intense and high-quality presence promoted by effective didactics as the cornerstone of learning experience design.
keywords: Engagement, Presence, Advanced Didactics