Blended learning... Well it is the new learning. In today's society we are surrounded by technology with computers, smartphones, and even now smart-boards in classrooms. Walking around today we look around at all the different generations and you can physically see the difference technology has impacted the generations. Many kids now can use an smartphone before they can talk, so it makes the most sense to be able to incorporate technology into learning to keep kids engaged. In this video they talk about how it is important to understand that kids are coming from homes that they are now surrounded by technology and then how teachers are using that to their advantage and making their classrooms a more productive and engaged environment.
Educational Technology, this class has been a very good way to not only follow the course work weekly but it also opens up a lot of ideas for what we, as future teachers, can use and should incorporate into our classrooms. This class has effectively used the blended learning idea most effectively at the start of the semester. In the physical classroom we were taught first hand and were able to see what all we should be doing and what it should look like, then as time went on it transitioned to mainly time on our own. Even though we started to be mainly online based, we still had a very sound blend for we had the opportunity to go in and ask for help if we need it. Now we are mostly just an online learning classroom, but it is still part of the blended learning idea. This class gives you a good amount of time for you to be able to pace yourself, since we have an entire week to complete the assignments, but then we also had almost all semester to be able to figure out our projects. In all this course has effectively used the blended learning model to create a good environment for us students to learn and grow while using a technology based course. Though this class is great with having so much time to pace yourself, it directs the information pushing you to one path of instruction, and it also allows you to do your assignments anywhere, the class has a downfall of not having a larger amount of face-to-face interaction. For the Major Project, we briefly went over the idea of the project, but in a face-to-face interaction as the timeline grows shorter it would have been nice to have that face-to-face interaction just to get a feel of what the project should really be and look like. Also the grades for our blogs are not received as quickly as I would have thought, and even with the grades there is no real feedback with the grades. In this class, the feedback is ineffective in my learning process.
Blended learning has now become a necessity for today's schools and education. In today's society we are surrounded by so many people and kids knowing all about technology and how to interact via social media. But in a classroom, it will be the most productive and effective way to keep kids engaged and motivated. Blended learning is becoming something that every classroom and subject should be using, it helps to give teachers a better way to see the progression of their students. Like the teachers talked about in this video, it helps the teachers to get a more personal connection with the individual students. Blended learning needs to something that I am comfortable with in order for it too work in the classroom, each progression and step in blended learning will be a new learning experience for me. Along with this helping the students to be able to grow and get immediate feedback it is also a continuous learning experience for teachers. To be a teacher in today's every changing world you need to be able to adapt to the new technologies and change your teaching style to adapt the way of learning of your students. When we talk about engaging our students we have to also be able to individualize the lessons and teaching to help each student. With the blended learning we are able to monitor the students progress and then help those that may need more attention. It is important to understand that more and more our culture is technology based the more challenging and different teaching has become, with this blended learning it makes teaching easier to find a common ground on which both teachers and students can share. Many of the ideas that have come to play are well thought out, for they are specialized to helping all students. Having students use technology to take formative assessments daily makes it easier to understand what the kids are retaining and what they are struggling with. Blended learning helps to have that immediate feedback for both you and your students. Like last week talking about formative assessments, blended learning should be incorporated daily into the lessons. With using formative assessments online it gives you the chance to have some students keep pushing on if they understand the lesson and then also gives your the chance to specialize and individualize a lesson for a small group that may be struggling. Blended learning is something you can not get away from, and really why would you? It will be one of the biggest tools for you as a teacher to really help your students to grow and for you to be the most productive.
Stacy Hawthorne is one of the founders and biggest members of promoting blended learning in today's schools. She is a big part of the Medina School systems blended learning team. She was talking about how big of an influence that blended learning has become and without it in the classroom it is becoming harder to keeps attention but also that it makes it easier. The most shocking thing that Stacy talked about was how her kids had computers and laptops of their own being in high school and middle school. My living style during high school and middle school was my family had one home computer and one laptop to share. It is just amazing at how big of difference less than 10 years can make in the advancement of kids having their own technology. This is the most shocking to me for the reason that is scares me... As a student myself I hated having homework that had to be done online but now that we are changing to a blended learning society where it is almost always required. Going home use to be my freedom, where I would go play outside for a couple hours then do my homework with no big distractions and go to bed. Whereas now with the blended learning we are have kids have to have a computer at home or at least access, also the internet, but then also they have to be able to sit there and focus without getting side tract on other sites and social media. For me this is a problem mainly for the idea that I myself get overly distracted constantly being on the internet but then we have younger kids that are forced to focus at home instead of being outside. This was shocking for the fact that this is also one of the main reason that we are switching to the more blended learning. 
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