The Innosight Institute (Staker, 2011) defines a general or “umbrella” concept of blended learning to be “anytime a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick and mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace.” This general concept partners well with the structure I have begun to implement with my Psychology 12 course, but there are elements of this definition that do not fit, such as students having control over the pace of instruction. Semantics aside, I will call it a blended course as it allows students to receive the benefits from a f2f classroom experience while offering students an online component as an alternative “method to infuse new engagement opportunities” into my course.
I am presently teaching in a traditional brick and mortar school, but over the last four years I’ve been attempting to implement new teaching strategies and learning activities that employ the use of technology. Three years ago, I added blogging as a component to my English 12 and Psychology 12 courses, and then I took it a step further—expecting students to create topic specific websites for a social justice inquiry project (for English 12). The following year, I decided to extend the use of technology with my Psychology 12 students.
With the Psychology 12 course, I was looking to give students an opportunity to take advantage of the vast sources of information available on the web with the intention of facilitating a deep understanding of the psychology and psychological issues. Contingent on this ‘experiment’ was the knowledge that online tools in “blended courses can significantly enhance student engagement, ensuring all students participate in course discussions and benefit from collaborative learning” (Thompson, 2012). Students were to use technology once or twice a week in order to communicate, collaborate, think critically, conduct research, and to demonstrate creativity using a variety of online tools. Implementation in my classroom involved using social bookmarking; creating collaborative documents and presentations (Prezi presentations, Google Docs); the creation of websites using Weebly and open discussion forums (blogging) on my website.
Now that my maternity leave is coming to an end, and my return to work begins next Friday, I have planned my next adventure in blended learning. I have begun by scheduling an extra day in the computer lab/week, I have signed up to have the portable laptop carts during my Psychology 12 block (hopefully this is a go), and I have redesigned my course (well, this is still in progress) in order to broaden and enrich the online component to complement what we are learning in the f2f classroom. I have created a plan by reflecting on my past experiences and designing learning experiences that are student-driven, allow for personalization, inquiry-based, and leverage the use of technology in an engaging way. My first goal was to redesign my webpage, so I actually purchased an educational plan from Weebly and I have begun creating my class website—the great aspect of the education plan is the class set of student webpages that come with the plan. I intend on harnessing the awesome power of Google+ to motivate students to share, collaborate and learn together. My planning for f2f includes the occasional guest speaker, to present content, for class discussions with technology driven discussion starters (video clips), for project presentations, celebrations of learning, and to engage students in activities and exercises.
The definition for blended learning is an evolving one, and to describe this course or any others like it as a traditional program would not serve it well. Steve Sorden (2011) shares that the “metamorphisis of blended learning” must change its focus from “brick and mortar vs. online learning to using more appropriate methods to maximizing learning” such that “the focus changes from learning space to learning design.” Thompson’s (2012) purposes a general definition which simply states that “a portion of the traditional face-to-face instruction is replaced by web-based learning." I am inclined to think of blended learning as “bringing together the best of both worlds” (Sorden, 2011) and I prefer to think of it as a method of “maximizing learning,” but if it needs to fit into a box of sorts, perhaps it could be a blended learning remix.
Works Cited
Sorden, S. (2011). Blended Learning: A Distruptive Innovation beyond Hybrid Learning. Retrieved from www.slideshare.net: http://www.slideshare.net/ssorden/blended-learning-11618453
Staker, H. (2011). The Rise of K–12 Blended Learning: Profiles of emerging models. Retrieved from www.innosightinstitute.org: http://www.innosightinstitute.org/innosight/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/The-Rise-of-K-12-Blended-Learning.pdf
Thompson, K. (2012). BlenddKit Reader:Chapter 1. Retrieved from Blended Learning Tookit: http://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-1/
I am presently teaching in a traditional brick and mortar school, but over the last four years I’ve been attempting to implement new teaching strategies and learning activities that employ the use of technology. Three years ago, I added blogging as a component to my English 12 and Psychology 12 courses, and then I took it a step further—expecting students to create topic specific websites for a social justice inquiry project (for English 12). The following year, I decided to extend the use of technology with my Psychology 12 students.
With the Psychology 12 course, I was looking to give students an opportunity to take advantage of the vast sources of information available on the web with the intention of facilitating a deep understanding of the psychology and psychological issues. Contingent on this ‘experiment’ was the knowledge that online tools in “blended courses can significantly enhance student engagement, ensuring all students participate in course discussions and benefit from collaborative learning” (Thompson, 2012). Students were to use technology once or twice a week in order to communicate, collaborate, think critically, conduct research, and to demonstrate creativity using a variety of online tools. Implementation in my classroom involved using social bookmarking; creating collaborative documents and presentations (Prezi presentations, Google Docs); the creation of websites using Weebly and open discussion forums (blogging) on my website.
Now that my maternity leave is coming to an end, and my return to work begins next Friday, I have planned my next adventure in blended learning. I have begun by scheduling an extra day in the computer lab/week, I have signed up to have the portable laptop carts during my Psychology 12 block (hopefully this is a go), and I have redesigned my course (well, this is still in progress) in order to broaden and enrich the online component to complement what we are learning in the f2f classroom. I have created a plan by reflecting on my past experiences and designing learning experiences that are student-driven, allow for personalization, inquiry-based, and leverage the use of technology in an engaging way. My first goal was to redesign my webpage, so I actually purchased an educational plan from Weebly and I have begun creating my class website—the great aspect of the education plan is the class set of student webpages that come with the plan. I intend on harnessing the awesome power of Google+ to motivate students to share, collaborate and learn together. My planning for f2f includes the occasional guest speaker, to present content, for class discussions with technology driven discussion starters (video clips), for project presentations, celebrations of learning, and to engage students in activities and exercises.
The definition for blended learning is an evolving one, and to describe this course or any others like it as a traditional program would not serve it well. Steve Sorden (2011) shares that the “metamorphisis of blended learning” must change its focus from “brick and mortar vs. online learning to using more appropriate methods to maximizing learning” such that “the focus changes from learning space to learning design.” Thompson’s (2012) purposes a general definition which simply states that “a portion of the traditional face-to-face instruction is replaced by web-based learning." I am inclined to think of blended learning as “bringing together the best of both worlds” (Sorden, 2011) and I prefer to think of it as a method of “maximizing learning,” but if it needs to fit into a box of sorts, perhaps it could be a blended learning remix.
Works Cited
Sorden, S. (2011). Blended Learning: A Distruptive Innovation beyond Hybrid Learning. Retrieved from www.slideshare.net: http://www.slideshare.net/ssorden/blended-learning-11618453
Staker, H. (2011). The Rise of K–12 Blended Learning: Profiles of emerging models. Retrieved from www.innosightinstitute.org: http://www.innosightinstitute.org/innosight/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/The-Rise-of-K-12-Blended-Learning.pdf
Thompson, K. (2012). BlenddKit Reader:Chapter 1. Retrieved from Blended Learning Tookit: http://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-1/