Episode 83: The Evolution of Classroom Learning with the Advent of Blended Learning Techniques

educators and administrators , as well as experiencing the micro discriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids , who were in the public school system , I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system .

Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed , I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress . If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children , then you're in the right place . Thanks for tuning in today .

I know that staying informed about K-12 education trends and topics is important to you , so keep listening . On today's episode , I'll be discussing blended learning , its impact on achievement and the positives and negatives of this teaching and learning approach . Have you heard about blended learning ?

This is another one of those educational topics that's popular in many school districts , yet you may not fully understand what's involved in it . The findings from various research studies indicate that it could be beneficial for student academic achievement . Yet much about this approach is unclear and the results are mixed .

In any case , this is yet another topic that you will want to be aware of , as it is probably implemented in several schools in your child's district . Let's get started . Blended learning has become a popular teaching and learning approach in today's educational environment .

Some remote and rural areas , however , struggle to find a suitable teaching approach , and this has led to some teacher retention issues in those communities . Blended learning is basically defined as a combination of traditional face-to-face and online instruction .

Students and parents who have experienced blended learning seem to prefer blended learning when compared to strictly online education . This approach has been adapted in many schools worldwide , yet there is still work to be done to make it more effective . For one thing , the training of teachers , students and parents is critical .

Technology also plays a role , and a crucial one at that , and all stakeholders need to be aware of online safety rules . Blended learning has been around since the early 2000s , a hybrid approach that really took off after the development of the worldwide web . Although there are disadvantages and advantages of blended learning , the advantages outweigh the disadvantages .

These advantages include motivating students because of the face-to-face component of blended learning . The students also seem to feel more independent in their education using the blended learning approach , because it helps them study at their own pace . Students also become active knowledge seekers rather than just absorbing information presented by a teacher .

The blended learning approach is also cost efficient from a financial point of view because students and teachers have the flexibility to not have to be in the classroom every day .

Another advantage is that blended learning maximizes the value of face-to-face time , allowing students to flesh out questions about difficult topics , identify and resolve assumptions and misconceptions about a topic , build community , perform hands-on activities and address any questions that students may have about the technology .

One disadvantage of blended learning is that all students may not have access to technology . Students may also have a fair amount of struggle in using the technology properly , especially students in rural areas .

Blended learning also makes for additional work for teachers , although there are resources provided for them to use as guidelines in finding the right balance between online and face-to-face learning . Thank you .

Blended learning is a process that blends the strengths of one modality while neutralizing the weaknesses of the other modality in order to provide flexibility to learners , educators and educational institutions . This flexibility can be in time , space , path and pace , utilizing sequential or parallel designs .

The design of blended learning systems means going beyond simply shifting from on-site to online and vice versa .

It's an approach that requires a number of factors , including the purpose of blended learning , the pace and timing , ensuring that online and on-site spaces supplement each other , and whether blended learning will follow a single path or multiple paths for students to traverse .

The ultimate goal of blended learning is to facilitate a flexible learning and teaching experience that will transform learning into a more dynamic process . When implementing a blended learning environment , proper transition needs to be provided to ensure that the communication , interaction and flow of knowledge exists between on-site and online modalities .

Blended learning is applicable in K-12 settings as well as in higher education . Blended learning is also used in enhancing students' knowledge and skills .

It supports student-centered learning by providing interactive learning activities with the aim of encouraging students' integration , interaction , presentation , discussion , sharing and group work as a way to develop 21st-century skills using this approach .

The student-centered approach in blended learning also has an impact on increasing students' academic performance with soft and hard skills . Research has provided benefits to blended learning , including the improvement and motivation of learners , attitudinal enhancement , academic achievement , teamwork , skills acquisition , etc .

So students are also granted a wide variety of opportunities to extend their knowledge , abilities and competencies beyond the classroom through online learning endeavors . The skills that are required through a blended learning experience help to develop students' 21st-century proficiencies , such as the integration of knowledge and competencies .

Whether as well as in the conventional classrooms or on virtual platforms , blended learning helps to improve 21st-century employability , soft skills in communication , leadership learning , it and innovation .

Blended learning is simply a pathway to student-centered learning at scale in order to allow each child to achieve his or her fullest potential , but it's not a guaranteed success .

When optimally performed , blended learning breaks through the barriers of the use of time , place , path to understanding and pace to allow each student to work according to his or her individual needs , whether that be in groups or alone , on practice , problems or projects , offline or online .

It preserves the benefits of traditional teaching methods and provides new benefits like personalization , access and equity and cost control . School culture is also an important factor when implementing a blended learning environment . Blended learning can accelerate a gluten culture and make it great , but it can also accelerate a bad culture and make it terrible .

As with most educational approaches , blended learning is no panacea . It's a scalable strategy , be it for work , school leaders need to start with the overall goal of the project putting the right design team in place and understanding learning from the student perspective . It's certainly not about starting with technology .

It's more about understanding and undertaking a careful design process to unlock its potential . Although blended learning is popular in many American classrooms , there still isn't strong evidence that this approach helps K-12 students . Several researchers went and asked whether blended learning works or not . Usually answer with it depends .

For one thing , blended learning looks different from school to school . In some schools , teachers have a big say in which programs students use at different times , while in other schools , in-person teachers have connection to separate labs where students work online .

Also , in some schools , self-directed online programs are more likely to be an enrichment for advanced students , while other schools focus on remediation for struggling students . Based on recent reports , blended learning seems to make statistically significant gains for K-12 students on either math or reading tests .

Very limited research has provided results on the impact of blended learning in terms of achieving desired learning outcomes . This may be because students' learning style influenced their achievement and , if mediated in a hybrid learning environment like blended learning , could result in evaluation and performance of blended learning environments .

Blended learning emphasizes achievement by implementing the right technology to match the right individual learning preference , so that the right skills can be transferred to the right person at the right time . Blended learning is not meant to interrupt the traditional phase-to-phase environment , but to blend it with collaboration technology and the student .

There's no fixed rule on how much of what parts of a blended learning program that needs to be used as part of internet components . Estimates are that roughly 90% of courses offered in higher ed in the future will be in a blended learning environment . Intellectual ability , as well as learning style , affects academic achievement .

Learning style is basically defined as a distinctive and habitual matter of acquiring knowledge , skills or attitudes through study or experience .

It's a combination of cognitive , emotional and psychological characteristics of learners that work together as coherent indicators of learners' perceptions about their learning environment , how they interact with and respond to their surroundings .

Using multimedia , the blended learning environment may work for some students , but not every student is able to use material well , because their learning styles influence their learning achievement . Learning style , then , is important when utilizing blended learning . Student participation is the main barrier in blended learning implementations .

Clinton learning is showing some modest gains as far as having a positive impact on student achievement . It exists in school districts everywhere these days . Yet many schools find that there's a gap between what they aspire to accomplish with technology and what they can actually make happen .

The disconnect is caused from various factors , including students' lack of access away from school , teachers' lack of confidence in using digital tools and a murky research space for blended learning . Trying to understand the research on blended learning is complicated by a number of factors .

One , blended learning programs are often implemented in different ways under different conditions , and many studies really don't have a standard definition of what blended learning encompasses . Also , technology evolves so fast that research can focus on a digital tool or system one year and that system is outmoded within a few years .

The power of blended learning is in its ability to personalize education to meet each student's needs . Blended learning is going to remain part of the society , so it's important to learn how to balance it in our lives . Three issues become apparent during the implementation of blended learning in 2020 . Technological expectations , mental health and teacher preparation .

Teachers had to adapt to implementing blended learning strategies in addition to their regular duties

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They also had to understand a wide variety of platforms to create collaborative online communities that would continue to facilitate student learning While making the adjustment on the fly , so to speak , and during that time , schools generally failed to achieve one of the most important aspects of a successful implementation , and that is to be clear in their expectations for

both teachers and students . A lack of socialization and increased workloads plagued students and teachers during the early implementation of blended learning in 2020 . There was a loss of human connection , which exacerbated mental health issues , especially for students . Access to technology has always been a determining factor in issues of inequity and inequality in education .

This was especially true in 2020 , when access to technology was quite frustrating because it was a key component for student access to courses and learning materials outside the classroom . These issues are something certainly to keep in mind when utilizing the blended learning approach . Implementing blended learning requires a balancing act for schools and teachers .

Findings from a 2016 poll conducted by Education Next , which is an academic journal issued by Stanford's Hoover Institution , indicated that 51% of parents think high school students should spend 30% of their time or more receiving instruction on a computer . That's actually down from 57% who held that view the previous year .

The poll results also indicated that Hispanics and African Americans tend to be more receptive to students spending more time with tech in schools , compared to whites , who tended to be more skeptical of blended learning . Here are the action steps you can take regarding this topic .

The main action for you regarding blended learning is to basically be aware of whether this teaching and learning mode is being utilized in your child's school . Take note of how your child is doing academically , in other words , notice whether his or her grades were better in the traditional classroom setup as compared to a blended learning model .

On the other hand , pay attention to whether their grades and engagement improved when using the blended learning approach .

Research indicates that the tasks typically performed by parents who have students in K-12 online learning environment , including blended learning , include helping their children organize their work , guiding them through the school work and motivating them to make progress .

Additionally , two other parent behaviors revealed important practices for supporting student-centered learning environments like that of blended learning . These include adapting and leveraging . Leveraging is basically a behavior in which parents adjust their instructional strategies , learning environments , daily schedules to accommodate their children's learning needs .

Leveraging was a behavior that parents could access support and materials from a variety of sources in order to meet their children's learning needs . Your involvement in your child's academic progress is critical , regardless of the modality . Here are this episode's takeaways .

Blended learning is simply a pathway to student-centered learning at scale in order to allow his child to achieve his or her fullest potential , but is not a guaranteed success .

When optimally performed , blended learning breaks through the barriers of the use of time , place , path to understanding and pace to allow each student to work according to his or her individual needs , whether that be in a group or alone , on practice , problems or projects , online or offline .

It preserves the benefits of traditional teaching methods and provides new benefits like personalization , access and equity and cost control . Blended learning emphasizes achievement by implementing the right technology to match the right individual learning practices , so that the right skills can be transferred to the right person at the right time .

Blended learning is not meant to interrupt the traditional face-to-face environment , but to blend it with collaboration , technology and the student . Blended learning is showing some modest gains as far as having a positive impact on student achievement . It exists in school districts everywhere these days .

Yet many schools find that there's a gap between what they aspire to accomplish with technology and what they can actually make happen . The disconnect is caused from various factors , including students' lack of internet access away from school teachers' lack of confidence in using digital tools and a murky research base for blended learning .

As with most educational approaches , blended learning is no panthea . It's a scalable strategy , but for it to work , school leaders need to start with the overall goal of the project putting the right design team in place and understanding learning from the student perspective . It's certainly not about starting with technology .

It's more about undertaking a careful design process to unlock its potential . If you enjoyed this episode , then do me a favor and leave me a rating , a review or a comment on Apple or PodChaser . Leaving me a review is a great way to support me and help my podcast grow , and remember to share this episode with anyone that you think provided valuable .

Be sure to tell your friends , family and community about my podcast . Thanks for listening today . I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle . Be sure to stay tuned . On the next episode , I'll be sharing my thoughts on living with courage . Until next time , aim to learn something new every day .