Blended E-Learning, Second Blog Post

Second Blog Reflection
Blended e-Learning

My learning experience of defining blended e-learning began with my desire to understand just what this course was about. I couldn’t remember which class I had registered for, for the second half of the summer term, although I knew it was with Dr. Byers, and when I learned the name of the course the first thought I had was, “what the heck is ‘blended e-learning’?” Even after receiving the course materials, I was still not sure. I found it rather fortuitous that my first assignment was just that!
My first step in learning the definition was to read the required reading. Coming from a science background, I again found myself absorbing material that at first glance appears rather vague. Sometimes it seems like this educational material is created by people who are too wordy. I am still more accustomed to “Just the facts, m’am.” Understanding learning theories, describing teaching tools, et c., is a huge contrast from understanding chemistry or mathematics. The former has a more generalized range of focus because there ar so many variations on how to accomplish the goal, whereas the latter is very specific and focused, and rarely has alternative methods to reach the end.
So, once again, I found myself somewhat bothered when presented with reading materials for which I had to broaden my focus to the whole picture. I read and underlined pertinent facts in the article of required reading, Blended Learning Environments: Definitions and Directions. I needed this information to complete my first Blog. I also printed out all of the articles which I could gain access to (a couple of the links didn’t work for me), and was specifically focused on the article titled Blended e-Learning, since it had a specific definition of what this course is titled.
In my need to simplify a large volume of information into a few succinct words, I focused in on the phrase from the blended learning article above, “Blended learning combines face-to-face with distance delivery systems.” I understood that blended learning was a combination of self-study in any format, combined with instructor-led study in any format. Likewise, I was able to deduce that blended e-learning is an extension of blended learning, which takes place in electronic form. Voila! I had my simplified definitions. Simplified definitions require a greater knowledge of the whole, however, so I must keep in mind the rather large variation in the phrases “self-study” and “instructor-led study.” I had a bit of a scare during the group compilations, when I consistently heard the others stating something to the effect that either type of blended learning always included electronic media. I questioned my understanding, but I have come to believe that perhaps my personal definition of the two works best for me as long as when explaining it to others I am sure to be more specifically detailed about the components of ‘independent study’ and ‘instructor-led study.’
As much as I like to grumble about all of the work involved in Dr. Byers’ courses, the reading, the blogs, the documents and presentations provided, the discussion postings, the group work, the projects, I try to look at it as I do literature or poetry. Each piece in the whole is linked to the others, they are synergistic, forming a more unified picture, i.e., ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.’ In a way, that is what blended learning and blended e-learning are to me. All of the theories and definitions are integrated resulting in a greater opportunity for the students to learn the course materials more deeply and memorably. I don’t necessarily like it sometimes (mostly because it is so different from the more traditional educational training I had for my B.S. degree), but then the reason I am following this field of study is not for my personal entertainment, but for my betterment as a ‘master of instructional technology.’
So, reading the articles, having to think about the topics in writing my blog posting, organizing my thoughts for answering and posting my responses to the questions, combining my understanding with that of my fellow group members, listening to the presentations of the other groups all unite synergistically to create in me an understanding of the course content which is also linked to my existing knowledge, giving me wisdom.