[Jordan robinsonParticipant]

Blended learning is a combination of independent, self-directed work with live and/or face-to-face instruction relating to specific learning outcomes. I can relate it to sports, in particular any team sport. For example, an athlete will work alone, at the playground, on her jump shot; she will always work at practice with teammates (full court drills, defensive drills in groups, passing drills in pairs) and lastly, in unison with teammates in games (evaluation). Each form of practice relate to the idea of asynchronous and synchronous learning.

 
The biggest opportunity for blended learning environments, especially in an online setting, are creating a social context for learning. In my previous studies, all online courses I took became virtually pdf reading, discussion board posting adventures: all asynchronous, all the time, and ultimately boring. The past three masters courses I have taken have combined a synchronous aspect of the online course which has been a breath of fresh air for my learning. Hearing real voices, having real time conversations, all with flexibility still intact for my own learning (to an extent), has made my current experience of course work more engaging, refreshing, and current.

 
With flexibility as a positive, the draw back I see to blended learning is the technical demands required of users straight out of the gate. For instance, I have currently experienced three different learning managements systems in the past year (moodle, blackboard, and D2L), signed up for a word press, COi, ucalgary blogs, and youtube acct, and lastly, developed and created profiles in each of these unique softwares to given a more human touch to my accounts (i.e. removing the default picture setting). This has, at times, been overwhelming and redundant. In addition, if technical glitches occur at non-opportune times, face to face, in online environments, breakdown. One could argue that power outages and bad traffic can do that to real world face to face too, however, there just seems to be more trouble shooting steps required for the online model.

 
In my workplace (7-12 school), google docs has transformed how we communicate, collaborate, and interact. Kriegel’s notion, “Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers”, had traction at our school; for instance, our morning announcements book (for time immemorial) was a coil notebook, placed in a mail box outside of the principal’s door. If you had a message to write you recorded it in the notebook. Too often (from my office next door), I could hear people calling out five minutes before the announcements were read in the morning: “where’s the announcements book?’. Today, we have created an editable google doc that teachers can access (even write in) as the principal is reading the announcements over the P.A. . Though a stretch for blended learning, I think this is step in the right direction for my work place.

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