“Engagement theory is intended to be a conceptual framework for technology-based learning and teaching.” (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 99)  Engagement theory is a theory which stresses the importance of student engagement through the use of collaboration and meaningful tasks.   When a student is engaged they are involved in active cognitive processes, “…such as creating, problem solving, reasoning, decision making, and evaluation.” (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 99)   Engagement theory is similar to other theories, such as the constructivist approaches, situated learning, experimental self- directed learning, and theories of adult learning, because it emphasizes on collaboration among peers, a community of learners, and experimental self-directed learning.

            There are three basic principles of the engagement theory; Relate-Create-Donate.  First, the students must be working in collaborative teams, second the activities must be project based, and third the projects must have an authentic or outside focus.  The idea behind the theory is that the student are engaged while working in collaborative groups and are intrinsically motivated due to the meaningful nature of the project.

            The first component of the theory, relate focusing on team building which includes communication, planning, management, and social skills.  During the process of,                     “… collaboration students are forced to clarify and verbalize their problems, thereby facilitating solutions.  Collaboration also increases the motivation of students to learn.... when students work in teams, they often have the opportunity to work with others from quite different backgrounds and this facilitates an understanding of diversity and multiple perspectives.” (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 99)

            The second component of the theory, create makes the learning creative and purposeful.  The students are forced to define the problem which gives them a, “… sense of control over their learning which is absent in traditional classroom instruction.” (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 99)

            The third component of the theory, donate, “…stresses the value of making a useful contribution while learning.  Ideally each project has an outside “customer” that the project is being conducted for.  This third component bring authentication to the learning process and increases student motivation and satisfaction.

            “Engagement theory is presented as a model for learning in technology-based environments which synthesizes many elements from the past theories of learning.” (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 99)  The key aspect to this theory is that the students must be engaged for active and effective learning to occur.  A teacher or instructor can use technology to facilitate all aspects of engagement through the use of email, Skype, wiki pages, and web databases. 

            This theory is directly related to what I have learned about technology and its use in the classroom.  Technology offers an instant way to draw students in to a lesson.  Using collaborative groups is a great way to teach communication and social skills and offers real life situations for students to work through. 

Our goal as educators must be to teach our students to be successful in the world they live in.  Technology is only going to advance and our economy is a global one.  Our students must learn to work collaboratively and utilizing this theory in the classroom will help promote this type of effective and real life learning.