A lot of the principles of my teaching philosophy are similar
in a blended environment, face-to-face, or totally online environment,
but there are definitely some differences in delivery.
So, regardless of how you're teaching, you have to know your content,
and I don't necessarily think that you have to be the expert,
but you have to know enough to facilitate students in their learning,
so the first is content knowledge. The second is pedagogical knowledge.
And, in online learning, I think there are exceptional cases, or in blended
environments, where you have to help students with their motivation.
And that looks very different than in a face-to-face environment;
So, I think, I abide by the self-determination theory, where you give
students autonomy, competence, and opportunity for belongingness.
So, giving them choice in terms of autonomy in assignments
I think helps them with more engagement. And so, that can
be a choice whether it's in assignments, or readings, or how they want
to express their knowledge, and I think that's easier in a blended environment.
And, providing opportunities for relatedness or belongingness.
So, allowing students to build community is really critical in
a blended environment. It's critical in all environments, but really
in a blended environment or an online environment, so that
students don't feel isolated. And then, lastly, you have to have
technology knowledge to teach in a blended environment.
So, that's a little bit different. Again, you can get away with it
a little bit more in a face-to-face environment if you don't know
much, but when you're in a blended environment, to be effective,
in my opinion, you really have to be able to use the technology tools.
So, going outside of the platform that various universities might use,
whether it's Canvas or WebCT or BlackBoard, or whatever, and those
provide great tools, but I think we even have to move beyond that.
So, really, it's kind of a TPACK Model, Technological knowledge,
Pedagogical knowledge, and Content Knowledge and how they intersect.
I also think that in a blended environment, the principles for
universal design for learning really apply. So, allowing for multiple means
of representation. So, you can present materials through text,
videos, through podcasts, through images, through discussions,
through video conferencing, and that, to me, is almost a richer
environment and you might reach more students than a face-to-face
environment. Similarly, multiple means of expression,
so allowing students to express their knowledge. Traditionally, we ask
students to write or to give an oral presentation. They often don't
have the opportunity to create a video or create a podcast or
compose something; maybe it's an image that represents their knowledge.
And then, providing different opportunities for engagement.
Maybe that's giving them choice to engage in the discussion board
or a video chat or creating an image that represents what they learned
from the reading, and again, that provides more autonomy for students.
I also think that blended learning allows for a more participatory culture
in class. So, I definitely believe in the social construction of knowledge
and that most of learning is social, and it's much easier to create
a social environment online, in my opinion, than it is in a face-to-face class,
partly because you don't have the restrictions of time. You don't have this
two-hour time limit where you come in, you teach in that time, your students
are engaged, and then they leave. Rather, it's 24/7. Sometimes they see
each other face-to-face, sometimes it's online, and I think that both
environments provide more social learning.