Blended Learning? What is it?

Imagine a classroom where students are engaged, enjoying school, learning twenty-first-century skills, and improving their performance. That is what people want to see in the educational environment. These ideas are more easily said than done and may seem far off, but what if our education system was closer to these goals then people realized. A blended learning environment can help students achieve at a higher, more rigorous level, and learn in a way that is more applicable to the modern world that they currently live in and will be living in the future.

The theory behind blended-learning is that it is ideal to best serve the student for their modern and future environments. The twenty-first century is an age with full technology integration within the culture. Our students will be working in a workforce that will be using technology for every current and new future job. Traditional teaching methods were more relevant to a pre-technology era, where it has the teacher lecturer delivering the content and students practice through different tasks. However, this is not how content is delivered to our students and people outside of school. Websites, mobile applications, and social media deliver countless pieces of information each day. Blended learning allows for students to receive the content the way they are accustomed to and still have that traditional face-to-face interaction with their teachers. Students are also given control over their learning, which can be used as an accountability piece. This is accountability is defined as “learner control” which gives students instructional control (such as pace, content, and design) and scheduling control (such as time and location). Students in a traditional setting may have asked an instructor to slow-down, reteach, or skip unneeded information. Students were limited to the schedule that the teacher had to receive their content, and their day was incredibly structured.

Now it allows some time for face-to-face student and instructor-engagement, as well as online learning that enables students to work on the course activities at their own convenient time and pace.

There are many different websites that allow students to learn at their own pace and level really cater to blended learning. Khan Academy is a free content website that allows learners to select topics and view YouTube-like videos that teach the concept. Freckle and Prodigy are also free content games that use math and English learning arts subjects and puts them in the role of challenging games. Teachers can assign content to the students that align with their lessons with both of these sites. These programs also record the data, which makes interpreting the data much simpler. The key draw for blended learning is that it creates engagement with its learners thus, “infusing interactive content review games and videos . . . not only serves as an additional means to formally assess students but creates positive energy in the classroom” (Sheninger & Zhao, 2014, p. 155). Students also do not need to turn in written papers or worksheets.  With programs like Google Drive, students can be assigned and submit work online. There are many more programs, technology pieces, and possibilities than listed here that teachers can use within their classrooms to improve engagement and relevancy of the content being learned.

So what is next? How can schools use the technology available to their fullest potential? Eric Sheninger sums it perfectly, “This will only happen when schools realize technology is not the enemy” (Sheninger & Zhao, 2014, p. 141). The technology is available, the learners are ready, and all that is left is the support for full technolgy integration within schools.

Sheninger, E., & Zhao, Y. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a SAGE company.