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A. Kohn: "it's not really possible to motivate anyone, except perhaps yourself. If you have enough power, sure, you can make people, including students, do things. That's what rewards (e.g., grades) and punishments (e.g., grades) are for. But you can't make them do those things well....The more you rely on coercion and extrinsic inducements, as a matter of fact, the less interest students are likely to have in whatever they were induced to do. "What a teacher can do - all a teacher can do - is work with students to create a classroom culture, a climate, a curriculum that will nourish and sustain the fundamental inclinations that everyone starts out with: to make sense of oneself and the world, to become increasingly competent at tasks that are regarded as consequential, to connect with (and express oneself to) other people. Motivation - at least intrinsic motivation -- is something to be supported, or if necessary revived. It's not something we can instill in students by acting on them in a certain way. You can tap their motivation, in other words, but you can't 'motivate them.'" Another take on the idea of motivation -- it's easier to kill than to foster. Kohn gives some good advice on how to create NON-readers, and then some ways to get around the traditional approaches to teaching and learning that dominate the field of education.

"This study aims at investigating the efficiency of web quests in enhancing the 8th graders' descriptive writing. The 8th graders in the Lebanese public schools in general usually demonstrate poor writing skills. Consequently, they don't show motivation to write in English. The subjects of the study are one control group (n=22) and one experimental group (n=23) enrolled in grade eight in a public school in Beirut and whose ages range from thirteen to fifteen years old. The purpose of the study is to examine whether or not the web quest helps 8th graders achieve unity and coherence in writing descriptive paragraphs and to examine if the motivation towards writing is increased after using the web quest."

What is the new role for instructions in online learning environments? How will students communicate and interact? How will students be motivated? We are still wrestling with these questions.

This site is going EFL/ESL in a big way, using video: "We recently found out that 22frames.com is becoming a popular site for learning English as a second language (ESL). It turns out that watching captioned videos provides a way to not only learn formal English but also idioms and other cultural concepts. To find videos, you can browse through categories or make caption-only video searches on your interests. Even more, we have been devoting significant time and resources to developing ESL-specific features that are motivated by our users' feedback." "Recently, we found out that many of our users are using the site to supplement their English learning (see: http://www.22frames.com/esl.aspx ). They also began to pitch ideas we could implement to make the site even more useful for this activity. With so many requests, we decided to seriously consider these ideas and devote significant time and resources into realizing them. Now, we are turning our site into a substantial and FREE English learning resource. We are aware of a couple sites out there that are also focused on using captioned videos for English learning, so we've been focusing on the unique user-motivated features. Therefore, my goal here is to let you know about our free resource and that we are opening the door to requests for anyone who might desire features that have not been implemented elsewhere. Perhaps, you can share this with your colleagues/readers/etc as it will help us better gauge which features to prioritize and to increase the rate with which we will release new features. Please note that we are really serious about considering whatever feedback we get. I'm also pleased to announce our first feature, which we expect will help in learning/teaching popular English idioms. Idioms are a big deal in learning English, and it is clear that watching them used in real situations will increase the rate with which they are learned. We therefore processed a large group of YouTube videos in o

"Sometimes, it is just necessary to stand in front a group of children and speak to them. It's not the strongest tool in a teacher's box of tricks, but speaking to groups of pupils is hinged with one notable problem - keeping their attention - especially if you are trying to get key points across to help their learning. However, these ideas - adapted from spring.org.uk, can easily be amended for classroom situations, and are worth exploration in ensuring attention is kept by the majority of pupils:" These are some simple, but effective ideas to keep the motivation going.

A video of the presentation received many complimentary comments. {You may need to be registered at LinkedIn to view this video.)

Colonial Williamsburg has a multimedia online presence that is highly motivating for content-based learning in history.

Having students enter writing contests and publish online is a great way to motivate and have them read peers' work. This list includes online opportunities for even the youngest children.

As Vance Stevens points out, TBL sounds a lot like "communities of practice." The Wikipedia article has a brief history, motivations and benefits, etc.

"We learn most effectively when motivated. This is a list of games your kids will have fun playing ... while also learning important skills and lessons as a by-product!" Spotted this, via Sam Gliksman's blog. Several are social games also. I'm eager to try The Oregon Trail. Now, if only they made a Hypercard app.

"This article provides an overview of the background and evolution of the wiki and examines some of the affordances generally associated with wikis. It situates wikis in a clear educational context, linking wikis to social constructivist views of learning. It examines how the implementation of integrated wiki use might best be approached and looks at how motivation of learners to fully engage in integrated wiki use might be maintained. It clarifies three modes of integrated wiki use, administrative, referential and developmental, and provides specific suggestions for these. "

A nice set of lesson plans for middle-school to high-school students using Diigo to explore content areas. You need to sign in through a Purdue University portal to access the lessons. "Diigo is an awesome tool to use in the classroom. Teachers across the globe have used the social bookmarking tool to motivate and engage students in collaborative learning projects. This section will give you the opportunity to explore numerous lesson ideas on how to incorporate Diigo into your subject area. Diigo will help students develop and improve skills in communication, organization, and classification. Feel free to use these resources. We are sure it will make teaching easier and more exciting, while enhancing student academic performance."

This article (pdf file) considers three styles of motivation: goal-, relationship, and learning-oriented. It then offers strategies for engaging students in their own education. Includes a nice table comparing teaching-centered vs learning-centered classrooms.

LInks and insights from a talk at the iPadpalooza Conference 2015, Austin, TX: "Giving students websites increases motivation, reflection, and ownership of learning A blog is a type of website that includes an RSS feed (subscription) and comments (feedback loop) An ePortfolio is a structured blog or website that includes scaffolding for organizing student work Publishing on the web is not only 'the law', it builds digital citizenship and provides an authentic audience for students There are tons of web publishing tools available. WordPress powers 25% of the entire web for a reason. Many schools and districts are providing WordPress blog and website networks to every teacher and student. No two implementations are the same. Make it your own. But know there are tons of resources available."

"Students need motivation to learn. Integrating technology into the classroom by means of WebQuests is a great way for students to get involved in real life learning. Nellie Deutsch has developed WebQuests for students and teachers. Feel free to use them in your classroom." These are examples of WebQuests made by students ages 5-18 and include many science and history/culture projects. There are also some for teachers.

"Storybird is a free online service for families, friends, teachers, and students to collaborate in creating short, visual stories together that can easily be shared, embedded or printed. The website provides fun and simple tools to make short, visual stories in a user-friendly and kid-friendly environment. You can search by artwork or theme to begin. Stories can be written by one person or two or more people in a round robin fashion and can be shared privately or publicly. Publishing with Storybird is "global, viral, and instantaneous" which provides extra motivation for young authors and artists."

"The grammar blog is a weekly assignment I use in my high-advanced reading/writing classes for pre-matriculation international graduate students.... Each student chooses a grammar error or interesting/confusing sentence to focus on each week. Students read their classmates' posts and give feedback, and then I answer any remaining questions. The grammar blog is a motivating, student-driven, focus-on-form activity that engages students in important questions of syntax (grammar), semantics (meaning), lexis (vocabulary), and register."

Intended for native-speaking children in U.S. public schools, this is a phonics-based reading program. May be somewhat helpful for ELLs in that it can provide sounds and animations to help motivate young learners.

Yet another presentation tool that might motivate students. For teens and adults. Lovely colorful interface.

"Here, four ways to offer feedback that really makes a difference, drawn from research in psychology and cognitive science:" These include: 1.Supply information about what the learner is doing, rather than praise or criticism. 2. Take care in how feedback is presented so it doesn't reduce motivation. Have learners be involved in analyzing their own performance. 3. Orient feedback to goals. 4. use feedback to develop metacognitive skills.