Blended Learning

Blended learning is the way e-learning that combine with traditional classroom method to create a new teaching methodology. . It represents a much greater change in basic technique than simply adding computers to classrooms; it represents, in many cases, a fundamental change in the way teachers and students approach the learning experience.

A course created in a blended learning model uses the classroom time for activities that benefit the most from direct interaction. Traditional education (especially at the college level) tends to place an emphasis on delivering material by way of a lecture, while in a blended learning model lectures can be videotaped ahead of time so the student can watch on their own time. The classroom time is more likely to be for structured exercises that emphasize the application of the curriculum to solve problems or work through tasks.

Blended learning itself has six models :

1.      Face to Face Driver

2.      Rotation

3.      Flex

4.      Online Lab

5.      Self-Blend

6.      Online Driver

Blended learning is a core part of P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School. Since 2010, the school has taken a schoolwide approach to integrating digital content as part of their instructional framework. Driven by changes already happening at the higher education levels and the need to prepare students for the 21st century workplace, blended learning provides the school with a variety of ways to address student needs, differentiate instruction, and provide teachers with data for instructional decision-making. So it will be good for a teacher to start use blended learning that has benefits to teach their students. 

Global Education Network

New technologies provide ways to overcome the traditional barriers to global education and language learning.  The 21st century ushered in an era with the highest level of global interconnected in human history.  Technology now allows us to view live images of events taking place virtually anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The rapid development of global technological capacity and abilities also create opportunities for educators. Where institutions and individuals recognize the importance of education to national economic development, available opportunities are plentiful.

Technology can be instrumental in creating global learning experiences because technology has the power to breakdown geographical, economical, language, and time-zone barriers. With technology, we can gather around a screen in a small town in one place and connect with another place. Technology also allows for a two-way street. Instead of just sending information out about a holiday, custom, or community that your children experienced in the classroom, you can have an exchange and receive information back in return about cultural practices, customs, and communities other children experience around the world.

In this high-tech era there is a significant benefit to instant global communications is that students can improve their language skills through student-to-student conversations regardless of where they live.  The introduction of Peer-to-Peer video conferencing using devices students are familiar with can increase personal interaction. And it can be accomplished from anywhere, it is like opening the world to students who do not have the time or resources to travel.