BLENDED OR HYBRID LEARNING
It was spring 1980s when my parents
had admitted me at school at the age of 5. Started from KG (kindergarten) which
was the first year of schooling at those times and then after a year, was promoted
to Class1 which then continued till Class-10 and led to College.
Since then the education system is rapidly changing. In today’s world, a 2-year kid is admitted to school kindergarten section that consists of (Toddlers, Playgroup, Nursery & KG), which means the addition of 3 more levels into Early Childhood education. That’s not it! In our times except for the science lab, there was no concept of computer labs. But today school standards are gauged by an advanced computer lab with the best ICT course in the syllabus. It doesn’t stop here but there are a lot more. The ERP & LMS services for parents & students thus became a necessity.
Let’s have some technical discussion
on Education System; particularly on the Schooling System!!!
We
talk a lot about the education system, structure, and resources but technically
they fall under three common types, i.e. Formal,
non-Formal & In-Formal Education,
and ours lie under Formal, with an approved national curriculum, running
the conventional schooling system. That is why we have a board examination on the
local/national level and our school certificates are approved and recognized at
all levels. But the most important factor that is the main cause of a change in
our education system is Teaching
Pedagogy.
Wikipedia defines Pedagogy as:
“Pedagogy is often described as the act of teaching.
The pedagogy adopted by teachers shapes their
actions, judgments, and other teaching strategies by taking
into consideration theories of learning, understandings of students and their
needs, and the backgrounds and interests of individual students.”
- 1. Greek Pedagogy on the initial stage (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc)
- 2. Muslim/Islamic Pedagogy following Greeks Pedagogy with innovations (Ibn Khaldun, Shah Wali Ullah)
- 3.
Western
Pedagogy following Muslims & Greeks
Pedagogy with latest innovations (Maria Montessori, Play-based learning /
Frobel, etc)
But for the last more than one decade, a new concept/pedagogy of education is taking place which is known as the Blended or Hybrid Education system. Blended methodology alone however is the old terminology used in the educational pedagogy which earlier meant to involve students in activity-based learning extra resources & exposure visits. However; today it refers to the intervention of technology (ICT). Let’s see what facts are telling.
Technically blended education system is
basically, a hybrid model in which the pedagogy included planned activities by
active (face-to-face)/passive (Offline) through the integration of Information
& Communication Technology. This is blending
conventional education into the modern hybrid education system.
That was on-way, passive, or offline/asynchronous communication
however today with blended learning, everything is interactive & student-centered
learning, allowing teachers & students for active/synchronous communication
face-to-face.
Understanding the Blended Learning on a Light Mode:
DIGITAL CURRICULUM
When everything would
be digitized then there is a need to have a complete Digital Curriculum that
would be composed of tools and apps with instructional content for teachers and
students. Think of the scenario where
Course books and all resources will be replaced with digital contents and all
stakeholders would be communicating through some digital medium; it would be
the 21st-century schooling/learning.
VISION, STAKEHOLDER & CULTURE
The culture of the organization is an important aspect of the
implementation of the project. Although
the vision is clear and strategies are well defined but culture & way of
thinking in an organization is the first and greatest determinant of the
success or failure. The project head
must be aware of this fact and align everything according to the desired
condition.
THE DEFINITION
Various studies & researches
carried out on the Promising &
Critical Factors of Blended Learning Systems. The recommendations that follow are grouped under six headings: Students,
Teachers, Institution, Technology, Curriculum & Pedagogy Social &
Economics which have been developed from the emergent literature, where
there is an overall emphasis on pedagogic factors.
PROMISING FACTS
CONTACT NORTH NORD Research on the favorable facts:
CRITICAL FACTS
Student
& Teacher: the
findings from a study by Al-Busaidi & Al-Shihi (2012) https://content.sciendo.com/configurable/contentpage/journals$002fijicte$002f6$002f2$002farticle-p37.xml
indicated that important factors to address from a teacher or instructor
perspective are:
- ·
Computer anxiety
- ·
Learning environment quality
- ·
Technical support
- ·
Management support
- ·
An incentives policy
- ·
Affordability
THE ROADMAP
REDBIRD has drafted a complete implementation plan: the roadmap assists in the implementation of the Blended Learning System in any educational institution. It commonly takes 5 years for the complete implementation.
redbird blended learning roadmap - Google Search
Every aspect of Blended Learning is planned & professional. Either its digital curriculum, a roadmap of
implementation, stakeholder’s capacity building, technology, or budget. Subsequently; there are various researches
carried out by experts that have revealed that the majority of the students had
a positive viewpoint and learning outcomes through blended systems as compared
to the traditional classroom studies because the target audience wanted to
acquire their educational goals in a way that are suitable for their
lifestyles.
It’s not traditional (face to face) or complete online (virtual
learning) but blended learning is the mixture of both that include some part of
face to face and come of virtual learning.
This could be the transformation of institutions as well in which the
future institutions would have the strategy to compensate for limited classroom
spaces and instead of huge institutional campus and small building might be
running the whole educational system with a schedule of face to face &
virtual classes. Instructor & a student might have social interaction on an international level through online
classes.
We arrive at the point that or any country Blended Learning
implementation would be a noble initiative because this is the next generation an adaptive platform of education that aims to foster community engagement on a
global scale. Whoever took the lead will
be in a game of best quality education country.
A MOTIVATIONAL VIDEO
Why massive open
online courses (still) matter:
2013 was a year of hype
for MOOCs (massive open online courses). Great big numbers and great big hopes
were followed by Head of edX, MIT, Anant
Agarwal,
ü Online Learning Support: McGraw
Hill https://www.mheducation.com/
ü Digital Education & Technology Solutions: https://www.de.ed.ac.uk/
ü Apps and Tools: EdTech Hub
https://edtechhub.org/
ü Reviews & Ratings for Edu Specific
Tech Tools: EdSurge https://www.edsurge.com/
ü Reviews & Ratings for Edu Specific
Tech Tools: Common Sense https://www.commonsense.org/education/
ü Global Community for Educators: ISTE https://www.iste.org/
ü Best Practices & Tools in Education: Edutopia https://www.edutopia.org/
ü Literature-Based Vocabulary: Word Voyage https://www.wordvoyage.com/
ü Education Web Search: Quest Garden http://questgarden.com/
ü Survey & Question Forms: Survey Monkey https://www.surveymonkey.com/
ü Students Activities: Wide Open School https://wideopenschool.org/
ü History Explorer: Smithsonian's
History Explorer https://historyexplorer.si.edu/
ü And many more!
I read it full, really interesting
ReplyDeleteOMG!! Blended learnig changers the way of education thats Amazing 👍👍
ReplyDeleteSuperb Sir!!!
ReplyDelete