Blended learning in the classroom is evolving, this much we know. I can remember back when I was in grade school, the only technical advancement that we had at our disposal was Number Munchers, the computer game designed to teach students basic mathematics skills. Times have certainly changed.
Today, blended learning in the classroom is becoming more of a norm than an exception. Grade school students have never known life without the flashy gizmos and gadgets that break down the walls of learning. Mobile devices, slick APIs, social platforms, and the like are ingrained in the psyche of today’s youth – teachers who fail to take advantage of these trends are missing a tremendous opportunity to enrich their learning experiences.
See Also: What Exactly Is Blended Learning?
Blended learning approaches don’t have to be overly complicated. For instance, we know of one individual who is using LearnDash to supplement their classroom by encouraging student interaction through guided videos on a specific classroom site. This simple site is broken out into different subjects, and each subject has its own associated lessons. Students are encouraged to provide their feedback via a comment section on the individual lessons, upload their homework content, and help each other through the learning process through controlled interaction on the site.
The Teacher’s Perspective
From the teacher’s perspective, this simple set-up saves hours of time. They essentially create their courses and lessons one time, then schedule when they want these lessons to come visible to their students. That’s it. Set it and forget it essentially. Once the system is in place, they can focus on altering content as needed, interacting in the forums and comments, managing the homework submissions, auto-graded quizzes, and so on. The learning content is “taken care of” by the site.Leave No Student Behind
One important aspect to blended learning is not leaving any student behind. You want to have visibility to how students are progressing through the lessons, courses, and how they are performing on quizzes. With this degree of visibility, teachers can ensure that they are able to identify those who may need some extra help or guidance through the content.In some respects, this is a significant advantage to the technology used for blended learning. In a traditional setting, it may be difficult to identify students who need this extra help, especially if he or she doesn’t bring it up. This is just one example of a blended learning approach that many have found successful. It isn’t right for every situation, but it clearly demonstrates the potential of blended classroom learning – and this is only scratching the surface.
The Right Balance
Finding the right balance of technology assisted learning is a bit of an art. It is best to start small and expand as necessary. Part of the challenge is making the blended approach part of the individual classroom culture. It shouldn’t be an afterthought, and if it is used, then it is important to keep the approach fresh and relevant through constant monitoring, interaction, and reinforcement during live classroom sessions. Stale content and poor usability can actually be detrimental to the entire learning process.We are entering some exciting times in learning. Many classrooms already utilize tablets in the classroom for some learning exercises – which is great exposure for youth that may not have the means to purchase these devises for themselves. Taking it a step further, say with a simple classroom LMS, bolsters the entire learning experience, learning retention, interaction, and engagement.
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