OLTD 511 - Blended Learning
OLTD Learning Outcome:
Create blended structures that fit in your potential or existing teaching environment.
Develop blended environments/programs that maximize the positives of both online and face to face environments.
Evidence to support outcome: Blenderizing My Learning Environment
Reflection to Support Evidence:
I see this piece of evidence as a good method for meeting this particular learning outcome. This assignment had us take what we know about blended learning and envision what type of methods would be needed to create a blended environment in our present circumstances. It included a reflection on the type of team we would need using Horn and Staker’s definitions.
This particular assignment was fairly timely as it helped to bridge the gap between what Horn and Staker talk about with the definitional premises of blended learning environments. For me, the definitions they proscribe are very much tied to the F2F environments found in traditional brick-and-mortar schools, which still leaves me out in the cold trying to incorporate what many see as the benefits of blended learning into our virtual environment.
Perhaps my nature to not accept everything just because someone has written a book has come to the fore again. As I continue to try and develop virtual programming that is both engaging to students and not isolating like many DL school models, I am struck by the inability of even the current masters of blended learning to see beyond the constraints of a physical environment. I would have to say that the F2F component of Horn and Staker’s definition can, in fact, be met in a virtual environment as easily as in a physical one. If we are to truly acknowledge how our students are accessing their personal technologies to create online relationships through a variety of social media, we should be ready to accept that these relationships can serve the same purpose as F2F ones. Thus, my assignment allowed me to begin to articulate how this F2F component can be replicated in virtual environments.
OLTD Learning Outcome:
Develop blended environments/programs that maximize the positives of both online and face to face environments.
Evidence to support outcome: Final Project; Proposal for Blended Learning
Reflection to Support Evidence:
I think this assignment stretched my partners and me in our understanding of blended learning, elements of good proposals, and collaboration. Ultimately, as a final project, the finished product certainly shows that we have in fact, blended our individual understandings of blended learning into a process that would be usable to make an appeal to any school board with very little fine tuning.
I feel that this project definitely highlighted this particular learning outcome as we needed to examine many probable aspects of developing a pilot project for blended learning. Being able to look at the descriptors given in the assignment and then to go beyond and incorporate three very different experiential backgrounds and teaching styles was a wonderful way to broaden each of our mindsets on blending learning environments. I would say that an unintended strength of this assignment was to show me how effective a group effort could be when broaching a very complex problem.
In a very similar way to my last reflection about this course and the learning outcomes, this assignment gave me an opportunity to examine how this particular outcome is relevant to my current administrative and teaching goals. In my world of virtual programming, I do not have the luxury of closing my eyes to the necessity of online learning environments. Rather, the success of my school depends on my ability to articulate not only what makes cutting-edge technology important in offering virtual programming, but also what does best practice look like in online environments. As blended learning models are being experimented with across my school district, people want to see if there are, in fact, advantages to this type of learning model. Thus support is guarded to say the least. In creating a virtual model that incorporates blended learning principals and structures, it is becoming more important to be able to show how to be competitive and successful in totally online environments. Working through the parameters of making a formal presentation to a school board on piloting a station rotation blended classroom allowed me the opportunity to reflect on how to use many of the criteria we established in the assignment in my everyday attempts to develop the best virtual school programs using hybrid models of blended learning and current online learning tools. While this is obviously not an overnight process, mastering learning outcomes like this one will help ensure that growth is positive and consistent.
Create blended structures that fit in your potential or existing teaching environment.
Develop blended environments/programs that maximize the positives of both online and face to face environments.
Evidence to support outcome: Blenderizing My Learning Environment
Reflection to Support Evidence:
I see this piece of evidence as a good method for meeting this particular learning outcome. This assignment had us take what we know about blended learning and envision what type of methods would be needed to create a blended environment in our present circumstances. It included a reflection on the type of team we would need using Horn and Staker’s definitions.
This particular assignment was fairly timely as it helped to bridge the gap between what Horn and Staker talk about with the definitional premises of blended learning environments. For me, the definitions they proscribe are very much tied to the F2F environments found in traditional brick-and-mortar schools, which still leaves me out in the cold trying to incorporate what many see as the benefits of blended learning into our virtual environment.
Perhaps my nature to not accept everything just because someone has written a book has come to the fore again. As I continue to try and develop virtual programming that is both engaging to students and not isolating like many DL school models, I am struck by the inability of even the current masters of blended learning to see beyond the constraints of a physical environment. I would have to say that the F2F component of Horn and Staker’s definition can, in fact, be met in a virtual environment as easily as in a physical one. If we are to truly acknowledge how our students are accessing their personal technologies to create online relationships through a variety of social media, we should be ready to accept that these relationships can serve the same purpose as F2F ones. Thus, my assignment allowed me to begin to articulate how this F2F component can be replicated in virtual environments.
OLTD Learning Outcome:
Develop blended environments/programs that maximize the positives of both online and face to face environments.
Evidence to support outcome: Final Project; Proposal for Blended Learning
Reflection to Support Evidence:
I think this assignment stretched my partners and me in our understanding of blended learning, elements of good proposals, and collaboration. Ultimately, as a final project, the finished product certainly shows that we have in fact, blended our individual understandings of blended learning into a process that would be usable to make an appeal to any school board with very little fine tuning.
I feel that this project definitely highlighted this particular learning outcome as we needed to examine many probable aspects of developing a pilot project for blended learning. Being able to look at the descriptors given in the assignment and then to go beyond and incorporate three very different experiential backgrounds and teaching styles was a wonderful way to broaden each of our mindsets on blending learning environments. I would say that an unintended strength of this assignment was to show me how effective a group effort could be when broaching a very complex problem.
In a very similar way to my last reflection about this course and the learning outcomes, this assignment gave me an opportunity to examine how this particular outcome is relevant to my current administrative and teaching goals. In my world of virtual programming, I do not have the luxury of closing my eyes to the necessity of online learning environments. Rather, the success of my school depends on my ability to articulate not only what makes cutting-edge technology important in offering virtual programming, but also what does best practice look like in online environments. As blended learning models are being experimented with across my school district, people want to see if there are, in fact, advantages to this type of learning model. Thus support is guarded to say the least. In creating a virtual model that incorporates blended learning principals and structures, it is becoming more important to be able to show how to be competitive and successful in totally online environments. Working through the parameters of making a formal presentation to a school board on piloting a station rotation blended classroom allowed me the opportunity to reflect on how to use many of the criteria we established in the assignment in my everyday attempts to develop the best virtual school programs using hybrid models of blended learning and current online learning tools. While this is obviously not an overnight process, mastering learning outcomes like this one will help ensure that growth is positive and consistent.