The learner engagement strategy herein discussed is multimedia-assisted learning. Since its integration into the classroom, multimedia has had the seemingly magical ability of making the dullness of schooling that much more exciting. Even back in the 90s, seeing an overhead projector being wheeled through the classroom doors would send electrical surges of motivation down the spines of many young students. Whatever it was, a transparency of the parts of a cell or just a clock and an explanation on how to read it, the turning off of the lights, the breaking off the routine of books and notebooks made it feel like the classroom suddenly shifted into something entertaining, worthwhile and scintillating. The overhead projector contributed heavily to the enlightenment of a whole generation. Now, the coming generations are fueled by Urban music, so to bridge the gap between interest and instruction, high school student Blake Harrison used Rap to help him study and realized that if it worked for him, it’d work for others. He majored in English in college, teamed up with a music producer and brought Flocabulary to life.
Flocabulary provides songs lyrically engineered to simplify definitions and explanations, provide examples, repeat key concepts along to exciting music which is itself usually composed to reflect the subject matter, as well. The songs are published along with an animated music video that reflects the content of the lyrics.
Goal Correlation
Right now, it seems there is nothing more that young people want to do than listen to music. One of the most popular social media apps available, TikTok, is predicated on exciting music and engaging content made with that music. Flocabulary digs into those desires of the contemporary student, almost as if forcing them to think: “I gotta do homework, but at least it’s kinda cool.” This highlights the comments from Liu, Liu and Tu that “one of the advantages of multimedia-assisted instruction is that it makes students more interested in sustainable learning and assists them to access information and learn more effectively.” Flocabulary makes it so that students take it upon themselves to want to study and embrace their education as their own. Choice affects motivation, and motivation, when combined with cognitive competence and social interaction, leads to engagement. (Guthrie & Davis, 2003)
Self-Regulation
At its inception, Flocabulary was born out of self-regulation. Blake Harrison, the idea man behind the concept, started the company in high school for himself. He wanted to learn but just wasn’t getting it, so he decided to rap to himself the content of his schoolwork. The idea behind Flocabulary can be expanded so as to have the students develop their own lyrical content in their own creative ways so as to even further strengthen the likelihood of retention. The same study mentioned earlier also acknowledges that: “as far as the four language skills are concerned, reading is the fundamental way of obtaining knowledge.” So, despite the benefits of multimedia-assisted instruction, reading is still at the core of attaining information. Whether deliberately or inadvertently, Flcoabulary seems to be aware of that and publishes their animated music videos with subtitles of the lyrics and they all publish the lyrics separately. If lyrical content is too fast with the music, they can read the lyrics along or at their own pace.
Student Expectations
“Make it fun” some students will say, quite boldly and honestly. Nowadays, some students seem to want to succeed academically more than previous generations but some expect or downright demand for it to suit their entertainment. This is important because learning things is essentially creating a long-lasting memory and what better memories than happy memories. So it’s important to create positive, welcoming and supportive learning environments where students want to be because they know they can succeed or at least not feel a sense of failure if they don’t. Flocabulary helps lighten the mood in a way where the students are still made to feel like they’re studying but there’s less of a sense of pressure. Even when a student’s interest is lacking, effective teaching has the potential to be the catalyst for sparking situational interest. As Schiefele put it "situational interest is an emotional state brought about by situational stimuli" (p. 302) Flocabulary is sure to stimulate students.
References
Gutherie, J.T. and Davis, M.H.2003. Motivating struggling readers in middle school through anengagement model of classroom practice. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19: 59–85.
Liu X, Liu Y, Tu J-F. Multimedia Technology and Learner Autonomy: An Experimental Study for Asymmetric Effects. Symmetry. 2020; 12(3):462.
Moley, P. F., Bandré, P. E., & George, J. E. (2011). Moving Beyond Readability: Considering Choice, Motivation and Learner Engagement. Theory into Practice, 50(3), 247–253. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23020789
Reiser, John V. Dempsey. Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology. Boston: Pearson, 2012
Schiefele, U. 1991. Interest, learning, and motivation. Educational Psychologist, 26: 299–323.
Curiosity
Teachers have always tried to integrate various instructional strategies to engage students for a long period. Since the start of the pandemic, teachers had to think outside the box and figure out other strategies, such as interactive and multimedia sites, to help better serve students. Flocabulary is a website that provides songs on practically every topic. It is meant to provide supplemental instruction with an animated video and appropriate lyrics. While teachers can assign videos or activities, students can search for anything interesting. Their curiosity can thrive on this website. For example, learning current events can be a daunting situation for a younger audience. Many students ask questions about the news, but they often get bored because of the…
Flocabulary is an excellent source for students learning language skills. This mulitmedia platform assists students with the understanding of vocabulary with the use of animation, music and written content for reference. The combination of these mediums helps to keep the learner engaged and actively learning.
This promotes the motivation to learn by giving students the ability to connect the animation, music and written content. Not only will students be interested in the musical content but they will be able to see the words of the song in written form. The animation connects the song and written words by helping to bring the meanings of the words to life.
Self regulation comes into play when the all three concepts of the…
For the past few years I have used Flocabulary videos to help teach vocabulary and concepts to my students. These videos are not only educational but entertaining to listen to and watch during a classroom lesson.
Curiosity
According to Reiser boredom is not the opposite of curiosity; boredom is the result from being in an environment that has unchanging stimuli( inset citation). Flocabulary addresses the monotonous nature that the classroom may have by intertwining music with students learning. In the average classroom, students use textbooks and lectures to obtain information and knowledge from the teacher. This cycle can become routine, which is good for some students, but for others it may cause them to lose focus on what the…
Hello, this is a great article. You had a captivating title, and the read was smooth and engaging. The learner engagements you chose to reflect this program, I think they were pretty spot on. It reminds me of learning songs growing up to learn specific materials. For example, in fifth grade we had to learn all the president's in history of the states. We learned the names through a song, and I can still sing that same song today. Got a lot of extra credit throughout high school for having that list memorized too. It's great that in the age of technology, it shows how much education can change and help students learn outside the traditional classroom model. You also…
First off, the title is fantastic. Also, the subject matter is great and incredibly relevant. In today’s learning environments, multimedia-assisted instruction is effective and, I dare say, almost a must. I think your topics of goal-correlation and self-regulation or great for the program you are writing about, Flocabulary. It is especially important for learners in the teenage range to make these alignments to make learning cool or fun in that moment. Then, with repetition, you start to get them to buy into the learning process and understand the benefits or even better, simply enjoy learning. I think Flocabulary and you really noticed the effect of music and learning. Your blog post immediately made me think of School House Rock’s Conjunction…