Blended learnig

Students who have grown up using interactive technology always feel that teachers’ methodology is not good enough. Nowadays students expect a more suitable experience that would motivate them. The incorporation of communication technologies in the classroom may change the learning process completely.

Blended learning means to rethink and to redisign thoroughly the educational environment and learning experience. According to Garrison, R. and Vaughan, N. (2008), “blended learning is a coherent design approach that openly assesses and integrates the strengths of face-to-face and online learning to address worthwhile educational goals.”[i]

In other words, it embodies a totally new approach mixing classroom and online activities according with the aims of specific courses or programs. In a blended-learning classroom, for instance, learners might come to regular lessons taught by a teacher in a traditional classroom, and at the same time they complete independently online tasks and excercises outside the classroom.

Also called hybrid learning and mixed-mode learning, blended learning takes into account a variety of options revisiting the way in which students learn deeply and meaningfully. This can be done if the teachers consider the important things and bear in mind the time that learners should spend inside the classroom.

Nowadays this new method became more popular and it is used in many schools and programs. Although many teachers are afraid of new tachnology and the implementation of these new developments in the classroom, it would be profitable to incorporate this approach and be able to make a balance between face-to-face and online learning since it may allow teachers to enhance and extend learning and offer designs to manage large classes.

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[i] Garrison, R. and Vaughan, N. (2008). Blended Learning in High Education. Framework, Principles, and Guidelines. Jossey-Bass.