Tom Vander Ark's recent article in Edreformer certainly gave me something to look into. While blended learning could easily be just another vessel on the sea of educational jargon, the idea of "a shift to an online environment for at least a portion of the student day made to improve learning and operating productivity" holds water with me for a number of reasons. Vander Ark offers "10 Reasons Why Teachers Love Blended Learning", with a number of links that I will be exploring further this week. However, instead of addressing all ten, I offer my own take simply on the above definition.
Shifting learning to an online environment for a portion of the day seems to me to be a more stable approach than throwing out all traditions of teaching in leu of 100% game-based learning or other approach. I have just experienced a rather challenging school year piloting a new iPad program in our school. I'm not about to whine about getting a class set of iPads, but the radical departure from paper-heavy tasks in my English class was clearly very challenging for a significant number of my students. A number of times I had students asking if they could just do things without doing them online, on a computer, the old fashioned way.
It struck me as a bit odd and counter to what I've been reading about this generation. It also got me reconsidering claims being made by many that the employment skills of the future will be radically different that any previous generation. There certainly will be different careers with different skills, but society will still rest upon traditions (albeit some electronically enhanced).
I'll be reading more about blended education in the near future and hopefully come to evaluate the theory and practice in a more comprehensive fashion. Until then, it would be great to hear anyone's experiences, understandings, or opinions on the topic.
Interesting points made, and truthfully, I believe that all students need to be outfitted with the iPads. Using them in the classroom with the teacher there going over information and posting wikis, blogs, etc. is where I think some of education is going. I do not believe that having students just do online classes is the way to go. I have seen some students do very poorly with the online courses as they procrastinate. However, if students work in a classroom with the teacher there and are guided, I think this form of blending can work.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting at times how people claim that our students are not technologically prepared to survive in the real-world. Well, during my education (which was a very good education, by the way), I never used a computer except to type it in World on an IBM PS1 computer. That's all I used it for. My point is is this: I, like most of the people I know, have been able to merge into the technology age very easily because I was educationally prepared for it. My brain could adapat and learn new things because I was taught that way. Students, if they are taught to think and learn new things and adapt as well, will be able to deal with new technological inventions in the future just like I was able to learn how to wiki, blog, and make podcasts.
Our school began a 1-1 initiative this year by issuing all students in grades 6-12 MacBooks. I too thought that students would be overjoyed to do everything paperless and online. However, there was a large number of students that openly professed their displeasure with the decision by the district to purchase the computers and they often asked if they could just use a textbook and paper to complete the assignments. I was blown away.
ReplyDeleteWhile I still think that it offers many opportunities for us as a district, I do believe that we need to continue to educate ourselves on the most productive ways to use this tool in a classroom. Thank you for this post...it is somewhat relieving to know that we aren't the only ones who stumbled a little with implementation.
Your Ipad program seems like a great opportunity for your students to get a chance to have this form of technology. It is too bad that not all of your students are embracing technology to the fullest. I think whether you use paper or use technology, it still all comes down to work that students may not want to go through extra steps. A pen and paper may be easier steps than logging onto a computer and typing out a paper. I guess that all depends on the perspective of the student.
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