Reading Notes. Littlejohn & Pegler (2006). Cpt1: What is blended e-learning

Littlejohn, A., & Pegler, C. (2006). 'Chapter 1: What is blended e-learning' in Preparing for Blended E-Learning: Understanding Blended and Online Learning. London: Routledge. pp 9 – 25

Generally recaps the history and the uprising of popular use of computers in education.

Benefits- Self paced learning, multiple choice and automated feedback, saving work in progress, tracking students progress, using third party content.

The main persistent concerns: Concerns about quality (is it comparable to face-to-face teaching?), Concerns about control of the class, Concerns about keeping up with changing technology.

This reading has given me a base knowledge of the general uprising of blended learning and technology in education, outlining the benefits and persistent concerns when applying it to teaching. The concerns or constraints can act as an argument against it, or at least to consider to avoid future challenges arising in my own teaching practice.

Costs in e-learning, argued. Does it save costs?

Quite relevant to my colouring clays course: “ One possible cost saving in education could be through scaling up courses so that the costs of presenting a course are shared with many more students. If students are taught wholly online without the requirement to attend classes, then it becomes possible to offer courses nationally or even globally from a single location. That could massively increase the audience (student revenue) for the same course without disproportionately increasing the costs of the product.” Page 19

Weller, (2004) counter argues that with more students on a single course, costs can rise because of the amount of student support needed to run the course smoothly.

Quality Improvement?

Lots of things wouldn’t be feasible without technology.

Disability for example using technology to expand their learning. Or a gifted student using badly designed technology making learning material flawed.

This could then be  a motive for a blended teaching structure! “Here the emphasis is not on pedagogical innovation but on the development of systems that support accountability, recording and transparency.” Page 20

“Walker and Schaffarzick (1974) tried to answer the question ‘Are new (school) curricula better than the old curricula?’” page 21.

“They found that new curricula were better at teaching the things that new curricula emphasize, and old curricula produced a better understanding of the things that they emphasize.” Page 21

This could relate to traditional skills learnt in workshops… Throwing taught in person/ 3D printing coding taught online?

E-learning widening participation?

“With the extension of disability discrimination legislation into education, such as the UK’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) (JISC, 2001), there are now also greater numbers of students entering higher education with some form of pre-existing disability that must be accommodated.” page 22

More mature students because of growth in accredited professional development.

Open University acting as a model – a second chance at education.

References

Littlejohn, A., & Pegler, C. (2006). 'Chapter 1: What is blended e-learning' in Preparing for Blended E-Learning: Understanding Blended and Online Learning. London: Routledge. pp 9 – 25

Walker, D. F. and Schaffarzick, J. (1974) ‘Comparing curricula’, Review of Educational Research 44: 88–111.

Weller, M. J. (2004) ‘Models of large-scale e-learning’, Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN) 8(4), www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v8n4/v8n4_weller. asp (retrieved 31 January 2007).