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August 6, 2004
TECHNOLOGY: Blending the best of face-to-face and online instruction
As an online forum, BoardBuzz will continue to focus attention on technological innovation in the world of education, not only by teachers in the classroom, and not only by school administrators, but also by school board members. We think technologically savvy board members can make better decisions on technology issues for their schools. And as the challenge of school governance intensifies—and as some question whether school board members are up to the challenge—the importance of school board training that is both meaningful and convenient will only increase.
There's another approach to training that we think school board members should be aware of. When participants in an online course gather face-to-face, the online learning community calls this "blended learning." The concept of "blended learning" grew out of two challenges: the need to meet the diverse nature of learners, and the wish to turn the "one shot" approach of professional development offered at conferences and meetings into extended learning experiences.
On the first challenge, let's face it: Some people thrive on face-to-face conversation and the energy created in a face-to-face presentation. Some would much rather interact online and, in fact, excel in a computer-mediated environment where they can reflect using a discussion board tool and can read and complete assignments at their own pace. Others fall somewhere in between. Consider how the most outspoken participant in a face-to-face discussion may fare online. You know, the guy in the back of the room who keeps asking all the rhetorical questions to hear the melodious sound of his own voice. Online, his questions may be more manageable and can actually lead to true learning outcomes, as opposed to eye-rolling by other participants. In the online environment, each participant has the chance to respond to another participant's question, rather than just sitting on the sidelines as the presenter fields all the questions.
On the second challenge, another reason to try a type of blended approach in educational programming and training is that some folks either cannot afford the price of a whole series of face-to-face meetings or cannot take the time to attend them all. From our experience working with busy school board members and other education leaders, NSBA certainly appreciates this factor and has tried to help. For example, the recent Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) Issues Seminar in Baltimore featured two important keynote addresses from U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) and John Powell, founder of the Institute on Race and Poverty. To enable participants to return to their boards and share the speakers' insights about poverty and special education, NSBA posted these sessions online, free of charge.
The best uses of blended learning also will be showcased for education technology professionals at NSBA's upcoming T+L2 conference. Attendees are invited to participate in one such blended option. Participants in pre-conference workshops WH1 and WH8 have the option of adding on a six-week course to "blend" their learning and connections into an online environment in a follow-up to the Denver conference. This illustrates how the face-to-face connectedness of a conference kick-off can provide a wonderful start to continued learning online.
There are many contexts in which learning is best served by some combination of classroom training, online instruction, and use of electronic resources. This goes for school board members and education professionals as well as for the students we serve. And for school board members, we naturally think it's especially true if the online resources include a daily dose of BoardBuzz!
Posted August 6, 2004 12:00 AM
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