#AreWeReadyForBlendedLearning?

#AREWEREADYFORBLENDEDLEARNING?

Blended learning is an approach to learning that combines traditional classroom methods and e-learning, being the latter a fully virtualized distance education through a wide range of technologies and techniques all relating to the digital transfer of information. It represents a much greater change than simply adding computers or tablets to classrooms; it means a substantial change in the teaching and learning approach.

Blended learning can be made up of two or three equally important parts depending on what is best for the group of learners or the course of studies. The first part consists of online learning materials, also given by the same facilitator; the second one is face-to-face classroom work, with teachers as facilitators; and finally, a structured self-study time guided by the material in the lectures and skills developed during the classroom experience. Blended learning is really only one of the mediums that helps to facilitate the learning experience and that is what makes it different from online courses or working only with e-learning. In the following picture we can easy spot the three elements:

Blended Learning 

It is of vital importance that the initiative of educational institutions and teachers to implement blended learning in classrooms would be in search of a major improvement in the educational system or in the students’ academic performance with the support of technology, and not the other way around. Another critical feature to be taken into account is teachers’ motivation as regards the use of this approach; they must be willing to make changes that may be radical in their previous practices, and different in comparison to what they have already experienced as learners. If teachers lack motivation, a very important component would be missing to make this model efficient.

In an attempt to incorporate blended learning in classrooms, teachers need to receive instructions from the scratch and attend ongoing capacitation about learning how to use new devices and educational applications in order to provide them with tools to find the best way to adapt the approach to their lessons. If teaching and learning would change with this programme, so need teachers, and that may sound scary.

This method of learning in combination with different resources is an excellent way to create and provide students with information that would be available for them to work at home, support while doing their homework and when studying and getting prepared for an exam. In EFL lessons, we think this approach would be great to carry out the idea we proposed in the previous post about SAMR model (Click here to read the post: http://bit.ly/2N3bBAg). Creating a live chat for education which would provide real-time engagement with subscripted students from other virtual classrooms so they can have a guided conversation supported with content as questions or expressions provided by the teacher in an educational context. We are aware of the existence of virtual platforms already set out by the coursebooks editorials or institutions can choose a digital platform as Moodle or Edmodo which are the ones that teachers have selected to work in Instituto Nº8 Guillermo Almirante Brown.

In Monique Markoff presentation at TEDx Ithaca College, she exposed four elements that we need in order to go blending. The first is flexibility, if teachers are prepared to change so as to find a better way of teaching and if institutions are flexible enough to let teachers innovate. The second one is commitment, which is intertwined with institutions and teachers engagement with all the training and arrangements required to carry out this programme. The third feature needed is a change in the student's mindset, showing them that their work will be profitable to their improvement. Last but not least, is a question about the teacher's role in this new model of teaching, some people think teachers would be put aside but actually, they still have an active role since face-to-face meetings are still the most important. (Markoff, M. [TEDx Talks]. (May 6th, 2014), 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb2d8E1dZjY)

In brief, teachers’ role would be crucial in the introduction of this mixture of digital and traditional teaching and learning, we will work as orchestrators, putting into practice our critical thinking and creativity. As we always like to highlight, everything that is destined to innovate or change the educational system should be implemented in the teaching training courses. That is the key to end with the gap between teachers and the new generations because if trainees have experience with new educational tools in advance, they will be capable of applying it in their future plannings and adapt it to their classrooms.

In the following video you can hear Monique Markoff in her presentation at TEDx Ithaca College, the one mention above:

REFERENCES

Markoff, M. [TEDx Talks]. (May 6th, 2014). Blended learning and the future of education: Monique Markoff at TEDxIthacaCollege. Retrieved, June 21st, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb2d8E1dZjY

Blended Learning Model. (n.d.). Retrieved June 21, 2019, from https://www.lmpi-erasmus.net/en/blended-learning-model.aspx