Blended learning is the merging the classic face-to-face learning with the of online learning.
To create a highly engaging blended learning experience, we want to take the best of both
worlds and bring them together.
But how do we begin to do that?
First, we must reflect and discover what is the most effective use of our face-to-face
time with our students and what is the most effective use of our online time with our
students.
Now, keeping students engaged in college classes is by no means a new challenge.
For decades, professors have struggled to maintain the attention span of young minds
in classrooms.
Here we see a law professor engaging in song and dance to keep his pupils alert in this
sculptural frieze which adorns the professor's entrance to the Law Building on Yale's campus.
But arguably, the engagement challenge has certainly intensified.
First, as we tackle the problem of engagement as educators, it's really critical for us
to contextualize learning as something that does not occur exclusively in a formalized
classroom but as a natural process that flows throughout an individual's life from birth
to death.
And our informal learning experiences directly shape our expectations and preferences in
our formalized learning spaces -- or our classrooms.
We cannot deny that.
Today, by the age of two or three many children already reach out to objects and expect to
be able to turn them on by swiping them with a gesture.
Also, the mobilization of content has shifted the way many of us access information.
In 2012, roughly half of the adult US population owned a smartphone -- a device that wasn't
even invented six years before.
And those six years, by the way, were some pretty rough years economically in the United
States.
And roughly half of adults own one of these expensive devices.
These devices provide smartphone owners with access to a world of knowledge in an instant
from anywhere at anytime.
These devices, which we still oddly refer to as phones, are really internet-connected,
miniature, multimedia studios equipped to create photographs, videos, and audio recordings
and share with a global audience in an instant.
Through these devices, many of our students experience their greatest achievements and
defeats every single day.
And all of these are learning moments.
Yet, these devices are still banned in many college classrooms today and rarely incorporated
into blended learning activities.
DVRs and internet television continue to time shift the content delivery experience of audience
members, as do smartphones.
Now think about what a television show is.
It's the delivery of content to a viewer -- not too different from the expectation a student
has for each of his college classes.
It used to be that you had to be in front of that television at 8pm on a Tuesday to
view a show that was scheduled to air at that time.
Not any longer.
Now many people record more shows than they'll ever watch and then, at their convenience,
sit down and surf those recordings to select a show that aligns with their preferences
at the moment.
Now that's what I call personalized learning.
When most students arrive on their college campus for class, they are expected to be
in a specific place, at a specific time, for a specific amount of time to have content
delivered to them.
And depending on the number of other students in that room and the style of the instruction,
it may be no more interactive than a television show.
So, we must ask ourselves, as we begin to design our blended learning environments,
is this the best use of the precious face-to-face time we spend with our students?
At one time, it made sense to spend all of our time with our students delivering content
to them.
But not anymore.
Today, we have dynamic options for transforming this model.
Let's circle back to our question at hand here which is, 'What is it, exactly, that
leads to high engagement in some blended learning environments and not in others?"
Well, there are certainly a variety of factors at play here that are beyond your control.
But there's one that is square on your plate.
Fostering student engagement in your blended learning class has less to do with technology
being used and more to do with how you use the technology.
Research shows that engagement increases in blended learning when technology is used to
support learning, rather than as an add on used for some other objective.
For example, to make materials more accessible by putting electronic versions online or by
using technology as a vehicle to make a class more environmentally friendly.
Not that these are bad uses of technology -- but they aren't examples of blended learning
environments that will increase student engagement.
Rather, to increase engagement, technology should be aligned with learning objectives.
It should be used as a means transform learning from a passive to an active experience and
move students from isolated learners to an engaged community of inquiry.
In 1987, Chickering and Gamson wrote the formative article, Seven Principles for Good Practice
in Undergraduate Education -- long before blended learning was in the picture.
The authors wrote, learning “is not a spectator sport.
Students do not learn much just sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged
assignments, and spitting out answers.
They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences,
and apply it to their daily lives.
They must make what they learn part of themselves” (p. 1).
To create an engaging blended learning environment, you must create a learning environment that
empowers your students to make their learning part of themselves.
That means from a bird's eye view, learning in your clas will not look like this.
Rather, it will look more like this.
By making this transformation, the way your students will be learning in your class will
more closely aligned with the way they are learning in their everyday lives.
In a blended learning experience, the world is your classroom.
Have your use social media tools to find and connect with subject matter experts around
the world, learn from them, and share what they've learned with their peers.
By harnessing the power of social media and web 2.0 technologies within the design of
your blended learning environment, learning will come alive and students will have the
opportunity to make it their own.
Remember, this will be new to them.
You are their guide and you will need to show them your vision, paint the picture for them,
support and encourage them -- because many will be nervous about this new approahc.
But once you all get passed this initial stage of community building, you will rejoice in
your new classroom without walls.