Case Based Learning

well, it is not about edutainment...according to case-based learning adherents, people learn better through stories because they can build a case library from which they can solve problems. The basic idea is that when faced with a problem people look through their memory for similar cases they have encountered in the past. Of course not all theorists agree, but that is part of the fun of learning theories.

I think that is why it is essential for us to teach students to read. We can only help them so much until they will need to have help from someone else that may not be in direct contact with them. This is becoming more important as we increase our use of technology to communicate with others.

I loved the term "edutainer".  When I teach I feel like I'm a one-man circus!  I always do my best to relate something to the students that has to do with a topic that I am teaching.  I find that it is a great opportunity to relate my own personal learning stories to them.  It helps them really understand that they aren't alone in the struggles they face.  I, at times, have shared a story that didn't really have anything to do with the topic at all.  Then weeks later, the students can recall the topic because they remember the off the wall story I told.      

I agree that it is important to captivate and enteratin students to some degree.  If they are not engaged and interested in what we are trying to get across to them then they won't learn.  Stories have a way of catching interest and keeping it whereas lectures tend to send students into their own world...so why not have some sort of combination of both...

Have you ever noticed that some of the teachers you remember most, the ones you learned the most from, the ones that are the students favorites now, are the ones who tell really great stories? At our school we have a teacher who I'm sure would not be well liked. He is very strict, older (this is his second career, he's retired military), and dresses funny (shorts and knee socks), etc. But the students love him! When I have asked them why they like him so much, my answer is usually something close to, "Because he tells great stories!" I want to be like him when I grow up.