I can remember the time I spent with my grandmother in a library researching our family genology. We looked through the records like detectives searching for clues. My grandmother was a resource as I searched and sought out the answers to the mysteries of our family tree. But the research was mine. I pushed my way through rolls of microfiche searching for a birth record, a death record, a census, always in search of clues. If I had questions or wanted to test my answers, I only had to wander to some giant stack of microfiche and ask the expert what she thought of what I was doing.
Having somone available to help guide me through the learning process has been a constant reminder to me as an educator of the kind of teacher I am trying to be. Trying to reach each kid individually is difficult in the constrains of classrooms and class periods. Opening up learning to become a 24/7 enterprise new technology is pushing education towards a combination of online learning and classroom learning. They are calling it blended learning.
I have taken graduate classes online and have been generally happy with the results, although some classes are more adaptable to the online experience than others. I have taken online classes in the past and there are times when you reach a wall, especially with some types of classes where you need face-to-face interaction to get the kind of feedback and instruction that you need. When these momments arise, being stuck at a terminal is terminal.
Blended learning seeks to combine the access and ease of online learning with other types of instructional interaction. I think in the future this type of instructional process will give us the flexiblity at the high school level to allow kids to specialize and take more challenging classes while still being a part of the high school student body.
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