Blending the Lines Between Virtual and Traditional
By Jeff Utecht
In a report released by the Sloan Consortium in January 2009, it is estimated that in the 2007-2008 school year over one million US students took an online class or participated in a blended classroom environment. This was a 47 percent increase from the year before. In a similar survey of 2500 universities, the Sloan Consortium found that 80 percent of university undergraduates will take an online or blended course before graduating.
The question remains: What does this mean for international schools who are preparing students for university? And what happens if more and more expatriate students decide to learn online rather than come to our schools? Sure, we know that there is added value in “going to school”, but try explaining that to a 16-year-old who can sleep in until noon and still graduate with AP classes.
The survey shows that most of these students are in what is being called a “Blended Classroom” or a class that incorporates both traditional and virtual aspects of learning and space. Professors and teachers alike are seeing the benefits to being able to ‘outsource’ certain tasks to the virtual classroom, leaving more time in the traditional classroom to dig deep into a subject, an idea, or a discussion. What if you could ‘outsource’ nearly 30 percent of your course content to homework or virtual school? What if students were finding relevant sites for you on a topic, having meaningful discussions outside of classroom time, and were able to bring that learning back into the classroom to have deep meaningful conversations? Would you be interested?
Blended classrooms allow teachers to focus on what a virtual classroom and a traditional classroom both have to offer. A virtual classroom brings its anywhere, everywhere access to content and a traditional classroom incorporates its face-to-face time with students. Focusing in and understanding how to use both classrooms is key in changing the learning landscape for students and preparing them for the education and world that awaits them —a world that is becoming more blended by the day.
At the NESA Spring Educators Conference I will be offering a one-day institute that will focus on creating a blended classroom. Incorporating free tools such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, and videos, we will discuss, learn, and go hands-on with the tools that can make up a virtual classroom. We will also talk about the pedagogy behind a blended classroom and discuss ways to manage the virtual part of your classroom. Creating a blended classroom is not about knowing the technology, it is about having the mind set to explore opportunities and giving control of the learning and content over to students. With the right tools, ideas, and innovation any educator can create a successful blended classroom focused on student-centered learning opportunities.
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Picciano, A, & Seaman, J. (2009, January).K–12 online learning: a survey of u.s. school district administrators. Retrieved from http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/K-12_06