Week 12 Reflection - Blended Learning

According to the Blended Learning Toolkit, an open source resource for educators, blended learning is "where a portion of the traditional face-to-face instruction is replaced by web-based online learning." I have taken a few classes at the University of Akron that utilized blended learning as a part of their curriculum, so I have some personal experience with blended learning to reflect on.

I, personally, have never been a fan of blended learning. I get much more out of a classroom setting with a professor and classmates to feed off of. Simply put, when no one is watching me, I have an extremely difficult time staying on task and doing things the way I am supposed to do them. It is pretty funny for a teacher to have this personality quality, but I do. I don't operate well by myself in front of a computer. I do much better when I am surrounded by people in a real life social scenario. 

I also work in the field of special education, where most of my students will need one to one attention, and few will be able to navigate an online learning scenario independently. That being said, I do think that blended learning does offer some more independent students with disabilities increased access to learning environments - which is great. All in all, I am very skeptical of blended learning.  I think it can be useful for some people in some scenarios, but I am going to stick to my guns here and say that I think most of the time, face to face learning, when possible, is a superior option to learning online. 

This article on eschool news does a great job of illustrating why some blended learning situations don't work out very well. I think it is true that sometimes the staff doesn't feel invested in a blended learning situation, so it falls through. Likewise, students may not feel invested in a blending learning situation, which can also cause it to fall through. In addition to motivation issues, sometimes technology just gets in the way and causes problems for the whole thing, halting learning in the process. 

Honestly, I have not enjoyed any of the blending learning class situations I have been a part of so far, so it is hard for me to imagine a scenario where I would feel invested in one. I have also had an extraordinarily difficult time investing myself fully into the online classes I have been required to take for my major here at the University of Akron. Whenever I think of blended learning or online classes, I think of my students that have conditions like ADD or ADHD and try to imagine them applying themselves to a blended learning environment. I think that one of my biggest issues is that attending class within the realm of a computer screen feels extremely limiting to me. I hate having to stare into a computer screen to learn. I am much more of an experiential learner myself, and I know that many of my children are as well. Perhaps my feelings on blended learning will change when one day blended learning classes can be attended using virtual reality, so that the online sessions feel more immersive. I could actually imagine that being pretty cool, but for now, I am simply not a fan.