My background with blended learning began as I coached teachers through integrating technology into their brick-and-mortar classes. As our school district added a virtual program to meet the growing needs of students, and implemented a 1:1 computer environment at the high school setting, that role expanded to helping teachers find content-rich materials to add to both their fully online and/or blended brick-and-mortar class. The idea was to offer ubiquitous learning - anytime, anywhere - as students' needs and interests continued to blossom under the influence of Web 2.0 philosophies and the constructivist classroom. Teachers were able to create learning environments, rich with multimedia and online resources, that not only supplemented their curriculum, but became a integral part of it.
In our district, there was little difficulty in explaining what we were trying to accomplish for students. If there was any confusion, it was easy to focus back on students and question, "What must we as an institution do in order to meet the needs of students?" However, once I ventured outside of our district, and became engrossed in the panoramic online education landscape - vibrant with nuance and unique circumstances - my understanding of blended learning became muddled when reading the research, or having conversations with practitioners around the world.
Although these conversations have helped me grow as a professional, this adolescence has been painful, with misconceptions and misunderstanding abounding. However, I have recently been introduced to a graphic which has offered a much clearer picture of what I've been trying to describe to others. Through Greg Vanourek's Defining Dimensions of Online Learning I was offered my "a-ha" moment.
For me, it has been impossible to have a word, or word pairing, that encompasses all that is involved in online learning. This graphic - complete with punctuated stop lines that show divisions between concrete "types" as well as flowing arrows to designate a continuum - offered me the first clear picture, in my mind, of a way to describe, compare and contrast ones online program in a way that would be discernible to others.
I believe my confusion stemmed from an understanding of what "blended" learning is, and once that concept was in mind, a plethora of understandings came along for the ride. It would be like using the word "snow" to represent what is meant by "winter." In this graphic, visually I see represented aspects, or dimensions, of an online program, and by showing what one means, rather than forcing a concept to be hammered into a word, I believe conversations can more easily take place between practitioners. By showing and explaining aspects or dimensions of my program, anyone can compare/contrast it with their own. For conversations, this is brilliant, and I am so pleased to have this visual reference.
For offering studies, sharing information, and research work, a clear understanding and definition of terms is important, but as I spend time learning and sharing what I'm doing through conversations, I appreciate the power of a graphic!
Bekci, You provide an excellent illustration of how the online movement (for lack of a better word) has caught us educators a bit off guard. As online learning rapidly changes, our desire to define and describe what is happening isn't always fast enough. I agree that the diagram is really quite handy- and its ability to capture fluidity will increase its staying power.
ReplyDeleteI will be interested to hear about your experiences with creation and integration of experiences. How have your teachers responded?
Hello, Anne. The teachers showed some trepidation, but were excited. Our 1:1 program began at our Freshman Center building - at that time, the district's cyber program had been in existence for a year. Teachers in the Freshman Center were more concerned with classroom management - how do we deal with all the students having computers, all the time? The professional development I offered was split - 50% classroom management, 50% online class creation. As we moved into the next year, and our cyber program expanded with several of the teachers in the Freshman Center also being asked to teach a cyber class, my concentration moved to creating rich online environments for students. I'd work with teachers to create a class the first year, which they would then teach the next year. We have online developers and online teachers - an important distinction that we missed the first year, thinking that they were one and the same. Allowing the time and isolated concentration on class creation truly helped both the cyber and blended (brick-and-mortar classes which are technologically enhanced, for lack of a better description). Using the same LMS across the board was helpful too - for teachers and students - and the creation of a template for all Quakertown classes brought needed standardization to the look of the classes. Now, 5 years later, blended is simply the way we work. Like anything else, some teachers are more confident and stronger in this area. Our administration has changed our professional development design to one of a teacher controlled model where we are giving time to develop our own PD around those issues where we each individually believe we need to learn more. That has been helpful, too. It's been very interesting being a leader in this environment, and I look forward to the next 5 years of change.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in learning more about your work, and understanding the global trends that are happening in online learning. In Pennsylvania, our district has taken a leading role, but we're behind the work done in many other states. Your position must offer you a very unique understanding of online learning - I look forward to learning from you!
Bravo to you all for acknowledging the distinction between developers and teachers. It's fun to do both, but overwhelming to new teachers to even consider it. I hope you are journaling these experiences- over time, you will find many others asking for advice and suggestions.
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