This topic contains 16 replies, has 17 voices, and was last updated by 
Dan McGuire 10 years, 7 months ago.
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Hi Everyone,
Blended learning to me has always been to learn by any means possible. I have never learned well in a face-to-face classroom, so when I was working as an ESL teacher, I was quite enthused about using different approaches in teaching English to new immigrants. I had no choice, really – since my students could hardly speak the language, being a sage on the stage would not do any good. This was before laptops and tablets were readily available, and only a handful of students could afford a cell phone. In those days, technology meant CD and DVD players, computer lab time and a multimedia projector (if the school was well-heeled enough to have a couple of laptops). My school was not, so it was up to me to wheel the television into the class each day and to sign out a few digital recorders under the watchful eyes of my supervisor, swearing that I would return these precious objects in the same condition that I had signed them out. My students and I still had a great time. I always marveled at how my lesson plans always expanded into some other directions, and fortunately for me, I was naive enough then to think that it was a good thing!
If one is open to the idea, one will see opportunities for blended learning everywhere. I believe that to learn the content is a great thing, but to know where to get the content is a greater thing. No matter how one does it, be it aurally or visually, in person or by technology, the end result is to know what to do. Personally, I think that the main challenge I have with blended learning is my inadequacy in the use of technology. It is not that I fear being laughed at – I have children who are light years ahead of their mother in this area so I am no stranger to the sighing and the eye-rolling
. I am just afraid that I do not know enough to be effective and efficient. That is why I am here in the eLearning Certificate Program: I would like to be effective and efficient.I work in a different environment now but I am quite envious of all the teachers out there for all the new technologies available to them nowadays. Most of these technologies are not applicable to my work situation right now. For the most parts, the main reason is that people resist, not to new things, but to the new ways of doing things. To apply a blended approach successfully in any situation, it has to make sense to the people involved. I do not believe in instituting new technology randomly just for the sake of having the tool. One has to show how the new tool will help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the workplace before it can be embraced by all.
Best,Mylan
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Hi all. I am six months away from completing an MA in Learning and Technology through RRU (not that I’m counting down or anything). My research project is on blended learning and I’m using the CoI as a theoretical framework – so it’s great to be here. I am also using the newly published text ‘Teaching in Blended Learning Environments’ for quite a bit of my work so thanks to the authors
. My teaching environment is largely traditional (I teach cardiac sonography at BCIT – mostly in the lab setting and I team-teach with another instructor who delivers everything via lecture).Blended learning is a combination of face-to-face and online learning opportunities “with the aim of each complimenting each other” (Poon, 2013, para. 1). I’ve quoted Poon here although I’ve come across many authors who have described blended learning in this way.
In terms of the opportunities that blended learning offers, I believe that blended learning provides the opportunity for higher-order thinking and I say this based on my limited experience teaching in the blended learning environment. Recently, I transitioned a three hour lecture into a blended module. I asked the students to read the online material (supplemented with videos/images etc..- the stuff I never had time to show in class), and develop five multiple choice questions based on the new information. (There was a short section in the module on how to develop a good multiple choice question. In order to become a registered sonographer, our students write several multiple choice exams). For the one hour face-to-face session, I reviewed the material/answered questions for half of the time and for the other half, the students worked in teams and vetted each others’ questions to come up with the three ‘best’ questions from each team (there’s something to be said about student developed content). Once the questions were chosen, I added them to the LMS as a review tool. This exercise allowed me to evaluate their depth of knowledge and when compared to previous years was significantly higher – even their verbal questions in class lead me to believe that they just seemed to ‘get it.’ And finally, the verbal feedback I received was overwhelmingly positive – the students appreciated the time away from campus and the flexibility to learn at their convenience.
The biggest challenge that I see is faculty support in adopting blended learning. According to the literature, this requires a complete redevelopment/redesign of a course and I could not agree more. Until educational institutions understand this, I don’t see quality blended learning going very far. I work with instructors who add a bit of technology and call their course blended but they fail to examine or understand the pedagogy of a blended learning environment.
I’m interested in learning more about blended learning in the context of vocational education. I think that there is HUGE opportunity for vocational institutions to take this and run with it. Transition the didactic content to online and have the students on-campus for the hands on practical portion. But with this vision comes the necessity for robust faculty development opportunities.Thanks for the opportunity to share.
Charmaine
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