Relevance

Great teachers make the relevance of the content they are teaching a priority.

As learners, we all partake of the learning process much more energetically when we can clearly make the connection between what we are learning and how it affects us (either now or in the future).

Masterful teachers (whether they have "teacher" credentials or not) manage to connect the learning and its relevance in one of two ways:

• They skillfully craft learning tasks/environments in a way that leads us to understand how the learning relates to our lives.

      OR

• They pique our curiosity by adeptly pulling us into into thoughtful inquiry about how the content might relate to our lives.

Via the internet, virtually ALL content is now freely available to whomever wants to search for it.  Substantive learning, however, always has an emotional component.  The best teachers KNOW that fact and use it to trigger real engagement with the content as well as with our fellow learners.  

The learning experience, far more than just the content, is where the real magic of meaningful learning occurs.