By Anders Norberg (Education Strategist, Campus Skellefteå, Sweden )
A common description of “blended learning” is combination of face-to-face and distance education practises, or methods, or tools, or content, or cultures….well, a combination of two existing concepts anyway. Perhaps also a meeting of the traditional and the new, of the ordinary in education and the project based. Some questions to ponder…
If traditional face-to-face education is combined with distance education, what happens? Savings of classroom space and lecturing time? Better enrollment on campus due to increased flexibility in scheduling for students? Extra learning efficiency by using modern tools? More stimulating classes? A sense of being modern and up-to-date by enriching a classroom culture with digital tools? All of the above?
So we get a “half-distance” or “half-face-to-face” course. Is that the final goal? Does it seem like the revolution we envisioned? Are we there already? Or is it enough change—are we just happy that all education won’t become “distance education” as we recently feared, because we saved campus education with a blended learning make over?
Can behind this exist a traditional place-based perspective on education, which says that the natural place of teaching and learning is the classroom? But now more and more tasks can be handled otherwise with help of technology. And why not remix courses? Blended learning becomes a mix of learning places, it enables more learning outside the classroom, but still from a classroom perspective? So the most relevant tools are video conference lectures, lecture captures, LMSs that replicate the classroom organization. In short: Extend the classroom with technology?
But isn’t it a little sad that even in Second Life, an environment where almost everything is possible, universities build campuses with classrooms where their avatar students can sit at their desks, watch power point slides and listen to lectures?
Our terminology reflects this place-based view. What did “distance” in “distance teaching” really mean? That students with help of some technology (books, postal service, radio, CD:s, recorded lectures etc) could be taught outside the classroom. OK, but what about “distance learning”? That a student could learn outside a classroom? But don’t all students learn outside the classroom? A “distance learner” learns where s/he is, not at a distance. And learning as such doesn’t demand a classroom. A classroom is a tool itself. Earlier it was needed for all teaching. That is now less and less true.
Will we ever be able to free us from the axiom that the natural place of education is a classroom? Can the classroom become a tool among other tools when building learning processes?
8 Comments
Sheri Klein says:
Sep 29, 2012
The discussion of language to describe the experience of learning-at-a-distance from a ‘real’ brick and mortar classroom is interesting. However, as the awareness about the diversity of learning environments grows, and as people experience learning in all kinds of spaces, I think the language we use to describe new learning spaces will follow the will follow the pedagogy and strategies used and we can see this with the terms– ‘online learning’ and ‘blended learning.’
Wes Golightly says:
Dec 27, 2012
Perhaps it is relevant to think of which modes of delivery are best or equally effective for specific learning objectives. As an example, professionals are now asked to be able to work with a team both physically (in a live, physical classroom), as well as in cyberspace. It seems to me that both methods of operation (live and web) would be essential for this purpose.
Nextgen Learning says:
Feb 3, 2013
While blended learning may be effective and be considered a step towards progress, IMO some subjects still require the traditional classroom learning setup. Argumentation & Debate, for example, is one subject that, to be really effective, is better done in the classroom where the students can interact, prepare for a debate in groups, and exchange opinions with classmates. You may mix it with online/distance learning, but I think for real effectivity face-to-face class interaction is a necessary component of the subject.
Claire says:
Aug 28, 2013
I am a fan of blended learning, just starting out my semester with two blended Spanish classes. The format sets up students to take responsibility for their part of the learning process (online voiceboards, discussions, responses), while I can use class time for targeted activities for the proficiencies we look to develop. I have done completely online courses, mostly due to administrative pressure to offer in that format, but in the end, I have gone to synchronous online meeting times every 2-3 weeks. This will not allow our program to be sold to students on the other side of the planet, but I still need face time, and I believe most of my students do, too. When asked to write a letter of recommendation, I can do that for a student who I have worked with in a blended course or an online course with synchronous meetings. I am not sure I could do that for a completely online and asynchronous course. And I still teach traditional courses. Most undergraduate students need significant face time to succeed.
anu says:
Oct 16, 2013
I think the language we use to describe new learning spaces will follow the will follow the pedagogy and strategies used and we can see this with the terms– ‘online learning’ and ‘blended learning.’
Sandie Barrie Blackley says:
Feb 1, 2014
What is the definition of “face-to-face” learning?
Isn’t a synchronous video-conference also “face-to-face”? Conversely, classroom-based learning can obviously involves methods that are not “face-to-face” (e.g., videos, social media). The terms synchronous and asynchronous are sometimes used, but is a video played in a classroom synchronous and asynchronous? (I’d say synchronous because the student has to be there, in class, in real time to have that learning opportunity.)
For example, our company has developed a blended learning platform for dyslexia evaluation and treatment, as well as for professional education for professionals who provide those services. We have synchronous, “face-to-face” appointments with clients by video-conference, and we provide asynchronous practice resources, both online games and activities and activities that parents can use with their child “on the fly”. Is “on the fly” practice synchronous or asynchronous? It seems it is asynchronous from the vantage point of the clinical provider but synchronous from the vantage point of the parent and child. Phew! We need better terminology.
Sandie Barrie Blackley, MA/CCC
Co-Founder, Lexercise
http://www.lexercise.com/
CB Schlyn says:
Feb 15, 2015
I think it is also important to mention the students’ newfound ownership of their learning and their buy-in to the product of education. Children today are so used to the electronic world. We often lose them in the boredom of the traditional classroom. Students often are engaged if they are using technology in a way to enhance and guide their learning. Therefore, blended learning is a lifestyle that needs to be incorporated into the 21st-century classroom as a way of giving the gift of being truly educated at a higher level.
Wendy Kilfoil says:
Feb 23, 2015
Large classes in many African countries could be a teacher in front of 600 learners – isn’t that distance? Online would bring students much closer to the lecturer and each other in comparison. What’s important about good distance education is what was learnt about instructional design and its value in promoting student learning. Tony Bates keeps alerting us in his blogs to use the decades of knowledge about instructional design in planning online courses as well.