BLENDED LEARNING

Nowadays, technology has influenced almost all facets in our daily lives. From agriculture, economy, health, and even education. The development of technology helps teacher to combine this amazing invention with ‘conventional’ way of teaching. One example of this combination is Blended Learning.

 Blended Learning can be defined as the way e-learning is being combined with traditional classroom methods and independent study to create a new, hybrid teaching methodology. However, there is no any perfect explanation that best define this term. Many use terms like hybrid, mixed, or integrative to describe this term.

In 2000, an estimated 45,000 K-12 students took an online course, and in 2009 more than 3 million K-12 students took the course. Moreover, as the technology keep developing, it is predicted that in 2019 50% of high school course will be delivered online.

There is a general consensus among education innovators that blended learning has three primary components:

·       In-person classroom activities facilitated by a trained educator.

·       Online learning materials, often including prerecorded lectures given by that same instructor.

·       Structured independent study time guided by the material in the lectures and skills developed during the classroom experience.

There are some models in this modern way of teaching. According to knewton.com there are six models of Blended Learning.

·      Face-to-Face Driver

Face-to-face teachers deliver most of the curriculum. A physical teacher employs online learning in a technology lab or the back of the classroom to supplement.

·      Rotation

Within a given course, students rotate on a fixed schedule between self-paced online learning and sitting in a classroom with a face-to-face teacher.

·      Flex

An online platform delivers most of the curriculum. Teachers provide on-site, as-needed support through in-person tutoring or small group sessions.

·      Online Lab

An online platform delivers the entire course, but in a brick-and-mortar location often students who participate in an online lab program also take traditional courses.

·      Self-Blend

Students choose to take remote online courses to supplement their school’s traditional curriculum. This model of blended learning is extremely popular among high school students.

·      Online Driver

An online platform and teacher deliver all the curriculum. Students work remotely and face-to-face check-ins are either available or mandatory.

Blended Learning also redefines the traditional roles of teacher in classroom. The word “facilitator” has emerged as an alternative to “teacher,” bringing with it a slightly different focus. The facilitator places an emphasis on empowering students with the skills and knowledge required to make the most of the online material and independent study time, guiding students toward the most meaningful experience possible. Facilitators focus on four key areas:

·       Development of online and offline course content.

·       Facilitation of communication with and among students, including the pedagogy of communicating content online without the contextual clues students would get in person.

·    Guiding the learning experience of individual students, and customizing material wherever possible to strengthen the learning experience.

·       Assessment and grading, not unlike the expectations for teachers within the traditional framework.

By applying this innovative way in teaching students, both students and teachers get positive results. From the students’ perspective, they are more engaged using online content than paper-and-pencil worksheet, they can get real time feedback, they can know where they stand so that they can control how fast or slow they need to go through the class. In addition, students can accelerate specific skill and have more attempt to have more interaction with teachers. While, from the teachers’ perspective, they feel easier to plan the instruction, easier classroom management, and they found that teaching small group is more rewarding since students are more engaged.

However, there are some necessary improvement in order to make this teaching method better. They are:

·      Integrated systems that support the seamless assimilation of online content from different sources into the student experience, while allowing student achievement data to flow easily across the school in real time.

·      High-quality dynamic content aligned to national standards such that students can stay powerfully engaged through continuous adaptive learning technology that offers a uniquely personalized learning experience.

·      Analytic that allow operators to provide more personalized learning experiences for networks of students.

·      Automation to simplify educators’ lives by eliminating low-value manual tasks like attendance and students assessment data entry.

·   Applications that enhance student motivation using features like social networks, games, personalized playlists, badges, and micro rewards to engage and incentivize students in their own learning.

Despite of its numerous benefits, we need to make sure if our students and school are ready to apply this method first. As, if both our students are not ready yet, and school has limited facilities to conduct this method, this method will not work well. However, this modern method is recommended to be applied since we can get more knowledge from all around the globe. In addition, for those who want to know more about Blended Learning, you may click this page for further explanation.