Topic 4: Design for online and blended learning reflection
How a debilitating toothache resulted in five wisdom teeth extractions! In ONE sitting!!
But that’s a tale for another day. Today I want to tell you the story of how I nearly died.
Once upon a time covid hit. The restrictions were slowly waning, but we have a few students who either contracted covid, were healing from it or parents were scared to death and kept their bundles of joy at home as a precaution. I had a class of 40 students whom about 15 were joining the class from home. Because of the large quantity of students, the class was split into two venues. Mind you, I was teaching first year students one of the Adobe programmes, so it was a lot of show and explanation.
How we connected the two venues remains a mystery for me but remember, I am teaching HOW to use the program lesson. This is me running between venues and asking home students to share their screens to ensure each student was on pace. It was a royal volcano spewing fire and brimstone! I was drenched in sweat with over 11 thousand steps on my smart watch before the end of the day!!
I do not wish this experience on anyone and I rue that day.
I know I could have been smarter, been a lot more prepared, but I, the world was caught off guard and had to make something happen. Fast.
- Reflect on how you can actively work to build trust to provide support, facilitation and scaffolding for students in online and blended learning environments, as well as how you can use new technologies for learning and assessment (Open Network Learning, n.d.).
I will be reflecting on the first part of the sentence above. How I can actively work to build trust to provide support and scaffolding for students in…blended learning environments.
Education Consultant, Willow Alston-Socha (2023) offers some points to remember:
- All models for blended learning share the common foundational understanding that digital teaching and learning require the engagement of both teacher and student,
- Technology is not the end goal, but rather the means to an effective blend of instructional practices.
- Effective blended learning instruction depends on a solid understanding of how to combine the content and teaching approach with technology use.
- For effective student learning to take place, the content (what you teach) and the pedagogy (how you teach) must match the technological task selection.
- Blended learning seeks to engage students and meet diverse student needs,
(Alston-Socha, 2023)
Benefits of blended learning for educators
I have always struggled to incorporate blended learning in a way that is meaningful and supports ALL students in their various technical level.
There are students who grasp concepts quicker than others. These “quickers” and are often left to wait for the next instruction while I assist those struggling, or I have an instance where I am flying through content leaving the students who need extra help behind. How would I support both students and support the student who is in the middle of both these groups?
This model has the potential to actively work to build trust, provide support and scaffolding for students in blended learning environments.
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First the dark room, the SLR then dSLR became obsolete right before my eyes.
Technology is moving..
FAST.
View PBL2 group work here
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Works Cited
Alston-Socha, W. (2023, July 13). A Means to a Blend: How to Support Effective Blended Learning In Your School. Retrieved May 5, 2024, from RTI International: https://www.rti.org/insights/blended-learning-in-schools
Kotobee. (2023, March 13). Blended Teaching: Models, Benefits, Tools, and More! Retrieved 9 May, 2024, from Kotobee Blog: https://blog.kotobee.com/blended-teaching/
Open Network Learning. (n.d.). Topic 4: Design for online and blended learning. Retrieved May 5, 2024, from Open Network Learning: https://www.opennetworkedlearning.se/onl241-course-overview/topic-4-design-for-online-and-blended-learning/
Strawberry Liquorice 
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