Let’s talk a good game: Mining talk shows for classroom engagement ideas

Although teaching during a pandemic has presented many new challenges, educators were searching for ways to keep students engaged and motivated during class long before 2020. Distance learning, however, has added the additional obstacle of a digital device between teachers and students.

It might benefit us to seek inspiration from some of the people who have mastered keeping vast audiences interested through a screen for years: talk show hosts. With the job to provide entertainment to people who can switch a channel any time they get bored, these men and women have learned a thing or two about how to gain their viewers’ rapt attention. There is no reason educators can’t adapt some of these techniques, such as the games they play with their guests, for the classroom.