Schools Need To Recognise & Utilize “Blended Learning”

Posted: July 6th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Education, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Another point that came out of NetHui was the need for schools to start recognising, and integrating “blended learning” techniques. Blended learning refers to a mix of both online education, and physical, traditional education in the classroom. It’s obvious that it’s the way forward for the world’s education systems, and yet I see every day that schools are unwilling to recognise it and make a change to include it.

I’m a massive fan of the Khan Academy. I use it daily to learn content for a large number of my subjects. And I completely buy into the Khan Academy goal of “flipping the classroom” – ie. letting people learn the content of the subject from video lectures at home, then doing “homework” in class where they can engage with the teacher and get help. A lot of students I know are trying to take it into their own hands and use this method, but they then have teachers re-teaching them things and not letting them do their homework in class. To effectively work, schools will have to buy into it as well.

New technologies can only be fully utilized when all stakeholders recognise the technology and adopt it. Students are currently being harmed because schools are not willing to recognise and adopt blended learning techniques.

Why are schools afraid to recognise it? I’m not entirely sure. If you know, please do share! But my guess is that they’re simply afraid from straying from the status quo. It is a big jump, but it’s to everyone’s benefit. Also, I recognise that not all schools may be able to use blended learning immediately – some schools in the country still have students without an Internet connection. But for those schools who can do it straight away, especially private schools, there’s no reason to wait.

If these techniques aren’t being integrated into schools by next year, there is seriously going to be a problem as there will be a huge disparity between how students are learning and how teachers are trying to teach. Khan Academy is growing at an astonishing rate, and more students worldwide want to do it. But if schools don’t recognise these learning techniques in the near future, it’ll lead to a disparity that will lead to negative effects for both students and teachers. If students don’t have teachers teaching them the way that they want to be learning, then they won’t be learning as much.

Fingers crossed for some action by schools soon.

  • Tinakarori

    Michael, see the item on the Ideolog website yesterday, “Leading learning back to the ol’ tablet” Looks like South Korean schools are following your lead! Cheers, Tinakarori

  • http://traintheteacher.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/dear-teacher-education-providers-can-you-enter-the-21st-century-please/ Dear Teacher Education Providers – Can you enter the 21st century please? « Teaching the Teacher

    [...] students in our classrooms want it, our country needs [...]

  • Stephen

    I suggested this style of learning (though without calling it “blended learning” at the time, which I like) to one of my Supply Chain Management professors near the end of this spring semester.  To my surprise, he embraced the idea, and mentioned that he would implement blended learning into his class next semester. 

    I think you perfectly pinpointed the two main barriers to widespread adoption of this technique:

    1.  Not everybody has access to a computer and an adequate Internet connection.  It will be easy for my professor to incorporate blended learning because the university provides seas of computers on campus, all with a free, reliable connection.  Private primary and secondary schools should also be able to adopt such methods with little trouble.

    2.  Recogni(z)(s)ing this system would certainly stray from the status quo.  I think the keyword here is “stakeholders.”  The teachers may be wary to implement blended learning because it could upset their school’s administrators.  Teachers (at least in America) are grossly underpaid, and don’t want to jeopardize their employment and the welfare of their families.  In the same vein, administrators have to answer to the taxpayers (parents), and don’t want to find themselves in bad standing with the public by implementing a system that challenges years of convention. 

    If this analysis is correct, then it seems like the best approach would be to attack the issue from both sides.  By creating a craving for blended learning within both the students and parents, whereby both sides of the spectrum demand change, then, hypothetically, these forces would meet in the middle (between teachers and administrators), ultimately driving this advancement.

    I’m looking at this like a circle with four points which, laid out linearly, looks like this:

    Students ==> Teachers – Administrators <== Parents

    The students and parents are, of course, connected, as well.

    It's entirely possible that none of what I just said makes any sense.  It was, however, extremely fun and satisfying to think through, and, for that, I thank you.

    If you can accept the above argument as the groundwork for a solution, the next step seems to be to not only educate students and parents on the benefits of blended learning, but also to motivate them to initiate change.

    How can this be done?

    I'm happy to hear that South Korean schools are ahead of the curve.