Clickbait for the Classroom: Using the Tricks Websites Use to Engage Students

This week I presented at Fort Bend ISD's Digital Learning Conference. In an effort to complete with some very interesting sessions (people got to program robots build with Legos, learn about the new Microsoft Office our district just rolled out to the teachers and are about to roll out to students next year, etc.) I decided to send out this tweet:

We ended up having to turn people away! So it got me thinking, could I use the same tactics for my blog - with accompaning Pintrest and Twitter feed - in my classroom. After all, there is a reason why people use these tactics. 

Before blogging, it would not have occurred to me to have made clickbait, but since I can see which posts get me hits on my blog posts, I've become increasingly savvy on how to get hits:

- pleasing visuals (canva.com is my new love for images I'm posting to twitter) 

- titles (clickbait titles as well as listicles) 

- organization of info (lists, infographics, or any other visual that helps people easily get info)

So why not approach how we give assignments in the same way? What if on the board instead of the homework being 

"Read article 'Bridges Made of Spider Silk? You Can Thank the Goats for That' and write response entry." 

VS: 

By tapping into our students' brains and how they are already primed for visuals as well as the reason why clickbait is so effective - a person's curiosity is piqued - students may be more likely to do the work and approach as less of an arduous task and more as a point of inquiry.