As I sit back and reflect on the past two years of education, my mind began to think about aspects of remote and hybrid learning that worked and aspects that could be improved upon. For most of us reading this blog post school is in person; we might be tempted to go back to 2019 and run our classroom pre-Covid. I believe that would be a mistake, since there was a lot of great learning that took place and for many students it opened school to them in a way that they had never experienced before. Naturally, this led me to the ask the question “How can we include some of the best parts of remote learning and bring it into my brick-and-mortar classroom? How can we improve the experience of school when the students are not in front of me?”

Blended Learning

Blending learning has taken on many meanings over the years. When I talk to teachers who are still working in hybrid models, one thing they mentioned is how blended learning has helped them become a better teacher in person. As I dug deeper into what these teachers were saying, they defined blended learning as a teaching approach that blends both digital and in-person teaching methods. Take a look at that definition; it’s about using the best of both in-person and digital learning. Nowhere does it mention hybrid or remote learning. Like I mentioned at the beginning, blended learning has taken on many meanings and interpretations over the years, and while I tend to associate it with more of a flipped classroom, it doesn’t have to be that way.

via GIPHY

Efficiency

As teachers we spend a lot of time explaining ideas, sometimes multiple times and in multiple ways. I remember a time when teaching division, and for some reason a group of students weren’t getting the lesson during the ‘we do’ time. The next day I came back and started the lesson by showing the Khan Academy video explaining the process with the exact same language that I was using and then all of a sudden, the students understood it.

For efficiency’s sake, if I had adopted using an LMS at the time, I could have not only have posted the example from Khan Academy, my example using the same language that the students would have the ability to review as they needed. I could have had the students watch the video first and then come to the we do time and worked through the process. I could have blended the content to make our time in the classroom more efficient.

Accessibility

This one works on a number of different levels. When I was a student, if I needed something from my classroom, I could only access it during school hours. By having a blended classroom, my room is available to students 24/7. If I am using an LMS like Schoology, I can have everything the student needs at their fingertips. I think back to forgetting handouts and homework. This would solve that. The other thing to think about with Accessibility is the number of tools that students have access to help them understand the content you are teaching. Things like immersive reader and translator can make a huge difference for students.

Student Centered Practices

When it comes to Blended Learning, many of the practices that you would employ are student centered. By having your lessons or videos that you are using for your lessons available on an LMS like Schoology, students can go and watch the videos at their own pace. Blended learning also gives you the opportunity to promote student collaboration through projects and discussions. When you allow students to lead in their learning not only does it stick better but the students gain a deeper understanding of what they are learning.

These three things are by no means exhaustive, but a starting point. Next week we will jump into all the different models of blended learning, which we’ll then follow up with practical ways that you can begin to blend your classroom and prepare for the next school year. For a collection of resources, check out my Wakelet on Blended and Flipped Classrooms.

We’ll spend more time in the next post going through all the different models of blended learning and the week after that we’ll dive into how to apply blended learning into your classroom. When I think of how blended learning can be useful to how a classroom is run, a few thoughts jump to the forefront of my mind.

What are your thoughts when you hear blended learning? What does it conjure up for you? Let us know in the comments below.