≡ Menu

How Blended Learning is Modernizing Education

how blended learning is modernizing education

Now, the world revolves around the internet. Blended learning is trending and critical to the educational sector. 

Let’s discuss how it can benefit the education system and how it has helped modernize education.

Gone are the days where students have to handwrite papers, use slow and clunky typewriters for their assignments, or spend day after day at the library for each class and assignment that arose.

Imagine being able to find the quotation you are looking for with just a click of a button instead of having to search endlessly through volumes in the library.

Better yet, imagine making a mistake on your essay – you can hit “backspace” on the keyboard and continue with the assignment instead of fighting with a typewriter or starting all over again. These exemplify modern learning.

However, there is another angle in which we can look at modern learning, blended learning. Blended learning is an education program where a portion of student learning is facilitated by digital and online media and is controlled by the student to some degree. This program is changing the way we help students learn and create a better future for them. But, to see its potential, we have to understand what it is and how it works.

Blended learning combines traditional education systems (learning in a classroom) with technology-based ones, thus creating a blended program that focuses on moving with individual students and providing them with the assistance they need to succeed.

This school system accommodates each student’s goals, needs, and learning styles, while everyone is still in the same classroom. Blended learning is an excellent concept for providing quality education and differentiated instruction during the allotted class time.

Blended learning is changing the way we help students learn. #blendedlearning Click To Tweet

Throughout the school day, each classroom gets a certain amount of time to use computers for educational purposes. When that time comes, each student has a separate account with his/her progress and profile saved.

When students connect to the tablet/computer and use their account, they can access all of their personal data. This example is the core of how blending working works. The computers/tablets enable students to work at their own pace on the lesson’s parts they require help. You could say it’s similar to having a separate tutoring session each day, using methods students enjoy.

You can even use technology to take your students on a virtual field trip. 

It allows the student to get the most out of the program, which directly corresponds to having a better understanding of the lesson and a higher intelligence level overall.

Instead of falling behind on classwork, students will be able to work through the difficult concepts at their own pace and understand them much better than they ever had been able to before. In turn, this means a greater motivation to learn, higher scores on tests, boosted levels of self-confidence, and a continued desire to succeed in the classroom.

In many middle schools around the country, this blended learning system has been very beneficial in English and Math – two skills at the core of education systems. Testing scores have gone up, and students are going to high school and post-secondary education systems much better prepared as a result.

Another potential function of blended learning is putting in additional programs for high school students. If students want to take an AP class that is not offered at their school, they can liaise with other schools that offer blended learning and learn that way. There are many fantastic options with blended learning in high school, which help prepare students for a college education.

However, blended learning is just at its beginning. Middle schools around the country are benefiting from the program, and now it is slowly being introduced to high school curricula to see how it can best benefit the students there.

The results are already being seen on smaller levels in middle school students, who are learning better, faster, and with more enthusiasm. By bringing in the computers and tablets to help them with concepts they struggle with individually, students cultivate a greater thirst for learning. This is all due to the idea that students get to use technology in school that they are both familiar with and love to use. The connection between school and technology is crucial moving forward in the world of education – this is the base concept of blended learning.

It is pointless to continue to use the concepts that helped students learn 50 years ago if they are not working on today’s generation. Blended learning brings es of the modern technological world while keeping the morals and rigidity of the traditional methods that have served well over the years.

The trick is to keep all of the external parts of learning the same but modernize how the education is delivered to the students, so they truly benefit from what is being taught and become inspired toward life-long learning. If we want students to be smart, future leaders, we must ensure learning is exciting and engaging without taking away its educational component.

Blended learning is the perfect combination of education and technology to get kids excited about learning and ensuring a bright future.

Therefore, we must zoom back to see how blended learning is changing education to help it move into the modern-day. We can look at the easy answer, which is the added touches of technology that get the kid’s attention; but, the real answer goes deeper. Because they control it, blended learning helps youth in today’s day and age have an education system that works for them.

The use of computer programs allows them to move at their own pace, so they get more out of the education system as a whole. If there is a student who struggles with Algebra, he can use the daily time to work at it until he finally gets to the stage where he can understand it; thus, leading to better scores in Math class and a happier child.

Putting students in charge of their learning is an excellent idea with impressive results.

Blended learning allows that to exist in a way that works for the student and will still be learning the right educational topics programmed into the computer. Giving students control allows them to get more out of the program that we are creating. Since it’s their future, they deserve to have a say in how they prepare for it.

Training in blended learning on a professional level now a major “must-have” in teacher-training schools. Many programs are starting to put it into their education system, so today’s teachers can go right into the classroom educated on blended learning and ready to put it into play when the time comes for it.

Experienced teachers continue to take courses in blended learning to provide their students with a valuable learning experience. It is a tremendous asset to include these skills in your resume. Within ten years, blended learning could be in every school, and all the teachers will be trained in how it is used to optimize student success.

Those who are applying for jobs in the area must have the keyword “blended learning” on their cover letter and resume and talk about it in an interview. It allows the interviewer to know that you understand what blended learning is, as well as have an appreciation for it and what it can do for each student.

There are school boards that are interested in looking at applicants with that keyword in their resume. Including this skill will communicate to the hiring representative that you know how important blended learning is to today’s education systems.

Blended learning is the hot topic right now in educational research, and from the trend that is developing, there is no question it will be here to stay. Since today’s children’s future depends almost entirely on their formal education system, we have to keep working to ensure it is the absolute best it can be for everyone involved.

The research and test scores suggest that blended learning is the way to making a better future for school-aged children from today and moving forward. Now, all we have to do is find a way to incorporate it into every school system in the developed world.