DESIGNING A BLENDED LEARNING

I have come to realize that blended learning is not enough in a classroom. It has also be a learner-centered way. So, ideally , it will also be a Lasallian module in a blended learning done in a learner centered way. With this I come to think about the things I did in the classroom this week with my Lasallian students. I used the OPTICART with a film on the Respiratory system. In a blended learning environment, the learners shall be able to manipulate and at the same time be able to receive feedbacks in the interactives. Although the OPTICART is not something that students will really manipulate, I allowed them to go near to it and follow through the path for instance of where the air will pass through following the colored film since the passage way of the air has color for emphasis. The students were so engrossed and interested. How much more if the teacher would really be using the interactive games with technology? I guess that would be the challenge that I would be able to place interactive games in my learning module next quarter. But I should bear in mind the different framework that would guide me somehow. One of which is the SAMR( Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redifinition). Most of the interactives merely fall in substitution and augmentation. The next framework would be the TIM (Technology Integration Matrix) which would allow technology to be used by the learners to build understanding rather than simply receive information. Another framework is the Blended Learning Design, Learner Centered Principles, Seven Goals for the Design, Effective Use of technology,Characteristics of Application, Learning Goals and the UNESCO FRAMEWORK. With all of these, at lest the designer will be guided, and will not simply place technology with face to face, just for fun. Yet, today I had fun in using another learner -centered technique which is creating the the webquest using zunal.com. I hope we can make it thoroughly to help in changing the schema of our learners.

As I started the first day of this course on Technology supported learning environment, I tried to recall the technology I used to help me in my day to day routine in the classroom. But then as we move on from the exercise on Learner-centered lesson design to process questions for an interactive website, I realized that just using technology in the classroom for a mere fact of having fun and making my task light and easy are not the only reasons but there is a more significant one. I must admit, that there are really times that a person could not really do efficiently the task and it is that time that we need the assistance of technology. In face to face setting, learners can still learn and have fun. But nowadays, as I look at the kind of learner I have, I had to compete with technology. That is because, face to face has its limits and the limits can only lead me to the use of technology. But it's not enough to simply pick any among the choices of technology presented to us in the net. In a learner -centered class that I've learned today I should choose interactive games for instance, that must have the manipulative and feedback as well. What's the difference anyway? We'll I've tried it in my science class the Monday after I attended my Saturday class. I showed them a video about body systems. I thought it would just be a simple video since I only previewed a portion of which. But I also already prepared sets of questions anyway, but to my surprise at the end of the video, the students has to answer a quiz, part of the video itself. And in the middle of the video, there are instances where in the students are asked to point to the screen the specific parts being mentioned. Then I realized, that these are the two things needed in technology, a. the students can participate not just simply watching it and b. they can be given the feedback at the end to show learning. Now it made sense to me.In eliciting the prior knowledge; activities for cognitive dissonance; until the learner is able to reconstruct new knowledge; and in choosing the map of conceptual change; and lastly in choosing the kind of technology; all of these are really for the learner to have a well blended learning. Hopefully I can make it happen.