Blended learning as future of education

Much like everything else that worries the enhancement of world and development of lifestyle and understanding, the area of education has certainly seen several advancements and improvements with regards to how to better train a student, make better the deliverance of the correct knowledge, and assist in better conception and understanding of knowledge application. There have been many attempts into new methods like the digital learning and online learning and incorporation of these new techniques with the traditional techniques in order to come up with a better way to enlighten the education of the students. Various research and tests have been done in different educational institutes around the world on these new techniques, which is now known among all the people as "blended learning".

Blended learning is a combination of classroom training along with online learning. Training that takes place in the classroom is done with the help of a teacher. In this type of learning the student –teacher interaction is direct and face to face and the teacher handles the content and the speed of the class going on. In spite of many misunderstandings, online learning can also be directed by the teacher.  Through the online learning or digital learning the teacher can instruct her students through the webcast where they can see and interact with their teacher through the projector screen or the computer screen. Teachers can also post classes and make projects that learners complete on their own. The trainer still handles the content of the lessons and sets up the final time limit, but in online learning students are independent to choose how, when and where they want to learn.

Through blended learning, students get the opportunity to benefit from the type of learning i.e. classroom learning and as well as online learning. In classroom learning student gets direct training, he/she participates in various activities and learns to socialize with other peers in the class.  At the same time in online learning, students have the opportunity to work in relaxed surroundings of their choice, they can learn at their own speed, and they even learn the importance of managing their own time. Thus Blended learning allows students to get personal attention through eLearning or digital learning and learns the importance of discipline in classroom training along with this they become independent through online learning.

The most reported benefit of online learning is that it allows learners to learn place. It has helped many universities rise who are offering online learning solely.  There are many more traditional universities that are offering their health science classes and management training through the online learning strategy. As a result, online learning or digital learning courses help save money   by avoiding travelling for the classes unnecessarily. The best part of online learning is that students have the freedom to study the material provided as per their convenience. The students can schedule his class as per his personal, academic or professional planning for the day, week or month.

Thus Blended learning gives students the exposure to work online and allowing them to enhance their computer skills. With the help of the syllabus, students are able to use the computer on regular basis to be a active part of the class, quiz, exams and be able to communicate with their teacher and other students of the online learning class. With the help of such tools students learn the course book but also the computer skills that is very important part in building their future.

About emPower 


emPower  is a leading provider of comprehensive Healthcare Compliance Solutions through Learning Management System (LMS). Its mission is to provide innovative security solutions to enable compliance with applicable laws and regulations and maximize business performance. empower provides range of courses to manage compliance required by regulatory bodies such as OSHA, HIPAA, Joint commission and Red Flag Rule etc. Apart from this emPower also offers custom demos and tutorials for your website, business process management and software implementation.

Its Learning Management system (LMS) allows students to retrieve all the courses 24/7/365 by accessing the portal. emPower e-learning training program is an interactive mode of learning that guides students to progress at their own pace.

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Give Students Mobile Devices to Maximize Their Learning Time

The Education Department’s 2010 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) presents a transformational vision for 21st century education, depicting how new technologies can help people learn lifelong and “life-wide” - in libraries and museums and their homes, and through interactions with people in their neighborhood and community.

In particular, mobile devices enable elearning anywhere and anytime, moving education beyond the industrial era model, where classrooms are the primary place of learning, the school day is the primary educational time, and the teacher is the primary source of information.

We know that students’ lives outside school are filled with technology, giving them 24/7 mobile access to information and allowing them to participate in online social networks and communities where people worldwide share ideas, collaborate, and learn new things. Our education system should leverage students’ interest in technology and the time they spend learning informally outside the regular school hours to extend learning time in a way that motivates them even more.

Mobile broadband devices now have six senses:

1. Knowing where you are

2. Interacting with networks

3. Sensing local content and services

4. Discovering relevant things

5. Enhancing your surroundings with information and simulation

6. Learning your interests, as well as how and with whom you like to learn

This new capacity for learning, which is infused with global information, is a powerful way of complementing the traditional model of learning, which is isolated from the world in classroom settings.

Cellphones, tablets and other mobile devices now provide access to a much broader and more flexible set of learning resources than is available in classrooms. They also create connections to a wider and more flexible set of “educators,” including parents, informal educators, and community-based coaches, tutors, and mentors. And, learning experiences can be customized for individual learners with content and instructional styles designed to fit the interests and experience of each person.

For example, when students are learning online, there are multiple opportunities to use technology for assessment. As students work, the system can capture information about their problem-solving sequences, knowledge, and strategies, as reflected by the information they select or input, the number of attempts they make, the number of hints and feedback given, and the time it takes them to solve a problem.

But there are some limitations. Four key areas must be resolved to realize the power of mobile broadband for ubiquitous learning:

Devices and infrastructure: How can we best balance educational investments between wired computers and the emerging infrastructure of wireless mobile devices?

Safety and privacy: How can we use internet access and digital student data to enhance education, while preventing various forms of abuse?

Digital assets and assessments: How can we drive innovation in digital learning materials and services when the education market is notoriously fragmented and slow to adapt, and when the strengths and limits of mobile devices for learning are not well understood?

Human capital: How can we empower educators and other stakeholders to realize the potential of anytime, anyplace mobile learning through evolutionary, revolutionary, and disruptive transformations that move beyond the model of industrial era schooling?

And, barriers in each of these areas create difficulties for progress in the others.

A ubiquitous technology infrastructure that supports anytime, anyplace learning is the hallmark of a 21st century educational system. I believe that every student and educator should have a mobile broadband device, with training and support for its optimal usage to empower learning. As discussed in the NETP, policy makers should systematically explore mechanisms to fund such an infrastructure for every district, school, and student, regardless of economic status.

Chris Dede is the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Each fall, he co-hosts a major conference for Qualcomm on mobile learning.

Online learning in 2011

As the new year takes off with a flying start, this is a great time to look forward to what's in store for online learning and learners in 2011.

2010 saw the North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) become the second largest in the country, second only to Florida's Virtual Public School program. Many North Carolina school districts are finding it more economical and efficient to pay the NCVPS rate of $600/per student per class rather than hiring teachers for courses that fall outside the standard curriculum but remain crucial to providing NC students with a quality, well-rounded education.

NCVPS will continue to grow in 2011 as NC school districts deal with a new round of budget cuts, and a increasingly diverse and demanding student population that expects all schools to offer high quality courses in a variety of subjects.

Educational applications for smartphones like the BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone (and associated products) will continue to grow in number and variety. Look for more foreign language apps, more apps aimed at all ages (especially younger users), and more apps aimed at learning specific skills "in time". Learning available when you need it.

Beware though of "in app purchases" which can cost substantial amounts of real world money. See: Smurf app fees leave parents steaming. While children become more and more tech savvy, parents still need to be aware of exactly what their children are doing online. A lapse in a attention can cost parents a lot of money.

Free or low cost online learning options will continue to increase. In October iTunes U started offering e-books to support lectures  and other resources from Oxford, Rice and the Open University. The Khan Academy continues to bring subjects as diverse as molecular biology and high finance to online learners for free. Khan Academy tutorials run the gamut from elementary school math topics to graduate level economics. Making it a great resource for parents and students.

Perhaps, most important for online learners and online learning providers, consumers will continue to become more knowledgable about accreditation and diploma mills . Information is power and in this case it will empower learners to make informed educational choices, which will improve consumer satisfaction with online education and the quality of online higher education offerings.

The future of online learning is bright and 2011 is sure to bring the changes listed here and many more. Find an online learning option that intrigues you and meets your needs and give it a try.

This article was originally posted at  http://www.examiner.com/online-learning-in-raleigh/online-learning-2011

Welcoming Mobile Technology

During a nine-week period last school year, teachers and administrators at Port Clinton High School reported more than 600 discipline issues related to technology and the use of cell phones on campus. “That’s a huge number, considering that our total enrollment is only 590,” said Ralph Moore, principal at the Port Clinton, OH, school. “And that number doesn’t even include the students that we didn’t catch.”

Moore, who in previous administrative positions may have taken measures to ban the devices that were causing many of the issues, took a different stance this time. Working with the school’s tech-savvy assistant principal, he sat down and tried to come up with a solution that would allow technology on campus while also reducing the high number of violations that students were racking up.

Teachers got involved with the problem-solving exercise, said Moore, who turned to the instructors for their input on how to integrate technology without disrupting classroom and learning time. Administrators also gathered input from the student body, which was given the heads up about a new wireless system on campus and the rules and policies that its users would be required to follow.

“We decided to try an open-access agreement, with some limitations,” said Moore. “We told students that we were going to roll it out for the last few weeks of the [2009-2010] school year, and that if it went well we’d write up a new policy and implement it.” The policies were written up over the summer of 2010, revised several times and reviewed by administrators, parents, staff and students before being put in place for the 2010-2011 school year.

Moore said the new wireless system came about after a $43 million building bond was issued in November 2009 to upgrade the school’s facilities, which were built in 1964. “We’re fortunate enough to live in a community where–despite what’s going on with the economy–everyone is very supportive of education,” said Moore. In need of an improved Internet access solution–either wired or wireless–he said, the district’s technology coordinator and superintendent looked at the options and decided to go with the latter.

“They felt that wireless would give us the most flexibility between our existing and new buildings,” Moore explained. The network, security firewalls, and Web browsing filters were already in place, he said, “so it was just a question of basically providing our students and staff members with additional Web access and allowing them to log onto the existing network.”

That’s exactly what students are doing these days at Port Clinton High School, with a few restrictions. For starters, every device must be “approved” for use on the network prior to logging on and marked with a sticker that administrators place on the back of each approved smart phone, iPad, iPod touch, or laptop. Individual teachers develop their own classroom rules regarding the use of technology, with some requiring all phones to be on silent or vibrate while in class and others prohibiting the use of such devices when class is in session.

The WiFi and device registration process takes just a few minutes and is handled by the school’s technology director. At that meeting, students sign a registration form pledging that they will use the WiFi in a positive manner and not in a way that is prohibited by the district. Students are assigned a user name and password for the Internet access, and their devices are adorned with a sticker showing that they completed the registration process.

Moore said the signed agreements are then sent home for parental signatures and then kept on file in case a problem or question arises in the future. “The agreement basically says that the student has read and understands the rules and that he or she will abide by them,” said Moore. “Once the form is submitted and the passwords are handed out, the student is good to go.”

So in an era when schools nationwide are torn between banning personal devices on campus, Port Clinton High School is already seeing positive results from its contrarian approach. Since the start of the current school year, for example, there have been fewer than 20 technology-related violations reported. The open-access approach has also created a sense of responsibility among students, who have come to appreciate the opportunity.

“I’d say 99 percent of the students who registered their devices are doing what we asked them to do,” said Moore, whose IT team is now struggling with issues like how to filter popular sites like Facebook and YouTube. “These can serve as good educational resources,” said Moore, “but there’s also stuff on those sites that you don’t want students to be able to access.”

Even with that challenge on his staff’s agenda, Moore said he doesn’t regret the decision to embrace technology and open up the campus WiFi to students. “Every school district I’ve ever worked with has had extensive rules in place prohibiting the use of cell phones, iPods and other technology on campus,” said Moore. “Instead of taking that stance, my staff and board collectively decided to find ways to enable technology in such a manner that would provide opportunities for our students.”

Source: thejournal.com