Blended Learning

[anisoara]

Read the article on Blended Learning at www.grayharriman.com/blended_learning.htm and express your opinions on the following:
What medium can be used in Blended Learning?
What are the challenges of Blended Learning?
What are the advantages of Blended Learning?

[obenausova]

Well, it is a nice summary of what blended learning is. As for your questions, I will not speak in general but rather mention what we do. So what medium - we use LMS of our university, all material is placed there. Besides, students can borrow books and study from them and answer questions related to their reading through the LMS modules.
Challenges - I'd say it is awfully time consuming for teachers. Since I wrote my dissertation on blended learning, I have read a lot about it and know what it should look like as for the production of material - the whole team of experts should be involved. In our case, however, I am the author, I create the activities, put everything online, I am the tutor as well as teacher during their classes at school. It should not be like that but that is the reality. Not to mention the money side of it. If I were not an enthusiast, I would not do it.
Challenges from the students'side. They can get overwhelmed by material easily. If the course is not properly structured, they do not know what is obligatory, what is the crucial thing, what is just for those interested to learn more, etc. I have had some criticism about that in my first year, so I know it now and always clearly indicate what is obligatory and what is extra stuff.
Advantages? They can study at their own pace, it helps build independent learners, everything is at hand, they can study when they feel like it and have time - there is a disadvantage connected with this - they sometimes tend to postpone online stuff for later on and do things for school that are more urgent. I solved this problem by setting exact dates when each homework must be sent. I accept them even after deadline but they get fewer points. As you see, I could go forever about blended learning. Enough of that... :-)))

[helend]

Hi
Yes I totally agree on so many points here ! Time consuming, often badly paid or not paid at all ! You've put it in a nutshell that you have to be an enthusiast and be well-organised ! I've found my younger pupils very motivated by the creativity that technology can offer them - that makes all our hard work worthwhile !!
cheers
Helen

[sophiac1]

I find the article informative, but I have also to agree with my colleagues above, that in the beginning it must be really time consuming to design and promote something new. A fresh new strart is always a difficult start. But it is a challenge. I would propose to introduce it little by little and every time to add a new element to the circle. It would be more digestable in the first steps.

[vicinnkir]

In my case, I would choose the mediums: Live FtF (formal), Virtual collaboration/asynchronous And Self-paced learning. I think these mediums are more reliable in my teaching environment.
The Blended Learning is a bunch of challenges itself. I like the idea of having multiple individuals in Blended Learning and managing the expectations carefully, without any overestimating the benefits and to be realistic.
As I have perceived the Self-paced learning medium has the same importance together with others and I am sure it would be the students` favourites medium. It`s the best advantage of the Blended Learning for learner`s account.
Victor.

[helend]

Yes I agree that we can't do everything in one day! I found that in my teaching context introducing one tool at a time was the best way (I teach young learners).
I started by introducing blogs - just getting used to commenting and reading. Then add little by little different tools - a voki for example, play around with it and then move on to something else.... Little by little they gain confidence and can find "routines" (uploading a file, making a recording, copy a picture etc.
Little but often has worked for my pupils !