In Blogging Manifesto Part 1, I introduced educational visionary Marc Prensky and I start here again referencing his 2011 essay From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom in which he contends that "knowledge" per se has moved from the teacher to the Internet and that student's personal passions have become their only motivation to learn. "Our teachers' job -- in fact their very raison d'etre -- is going through enormous change." Prensky suggests teachers partner with students and really listen to their needs because their educational context itself has changed. Listening to students and meeting their educational needs will help them succeed in their own times and lives.
Listen and watch the following student voices video and continue to read below why blogs integrate well in blended learning classroom environment.
Students are already online, wired, and networked. We need to educate them where they are and how they want it. In Blended Course Design: A Synthesis of Best Practices authors Patricia McGee & Abby Reis write that blended learning is "seamlessly operational where the transition between classroom meeting and online component is minimal." The authors estimate that 79% of higher education public institutions offer some sort of blended course offerings.
Multiple research on best online teaching & learning practices point to two overarching principles. The principle of active learning and principle of interactivity.
Active Learning
“Active learning requires that students are aware of what they know and what they don't know using metacognitive strategies to monitor their own learning.” (McGee P. & Reis A.) Online writing forces one to consider with great depth what they know, what they are thinking, and how to best communicate it through writing. Awareness of a public audience with an ability to comment (shred apart mercilessly or praise wholeheartedly and anything in-between) engages the writer in ever deeper thinking about their writing intentions and content. This is genuine engagement with both content knowledge and public audience.
Interactivity
“Interactivity may involve instructor to student, student to student, or student to others, materials or resources.”(McGee P. & Reis A) Blogging is amazing because it involves all of above activities. The instructor and students have access to and comment on classmates' blogs. The writer is also interacting with other materials and resources when they provide live links to other online materials. These interactions build community and maintain relationships, a key component to online blended learning.
Tune in to the next post discussing importance of social presence in blended learning.
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