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”Blended Learning” and Time
Anders NorbergEducation Strategist, Campus Skellefteå
PhD Student, Applied Educational Science, Umeå UniversitySweden
Disposition• Small-talk, my context of the talk• ”Blendedness” of learning• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”• Wrap up + questions
1,1 million
8,3 million
Education ”distribution” forms
1. Campus education F2F
2. Decentralised education
3. Real time videoconference ed.
4. Web based asynchronous ed. (no times, no places)
…and mixtures, blends, hybrids
Is there a new education logistics around the corner, with a new normality of education access?
Categorisation built on ”distance” from a central
university campus?
..longer distance, more technology, lower status,
unclearer quality
• Teaching space?Gap?
• Learning space?
• Teaching time?Gap?
• Learning time?
…and how to blend it?
Scene from Swedish movie, ”Hets” 1944, by Alf Sjöberg and Ingmar Bergman
Disposition• Small-talk, my context of the talk• ”Blendedness” of learning• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”• Wrap up + questions
Common definition of blended learning
• “Blended learning systems combine face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction. Blended learning is part of the ongoing convergence of two archetypal learning environments. On the one hand, we have the traditional face-to-face learning environment that has been around for centuries. On the other hand, we have distributed learning environments …”
(C. Graham, 2006).
Is blended learning like a boy named Sue?
A category mistake? Can learning conceptually be
blended?
A name that nobody loves?
Carries something promising?
Provides good growth conditions for something
”becoming”?
An evil naming – or by mistake?
“…the advantages of the term include its poor definition - which allows staff to negotiate their own
meaning”…the same has not been the case with
”didactics”
But people seem to understand it?
Simple working definition of BL:
• Ongoing integration of new technology-enhanced teaching/learning with mainstream education practices
John Daniel Commonwealth of Learning
Disposition• Small-talk, my context of the talk• ”Blendedness” of learning• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”• Wrap up + questions
1,1 million
8,3 million
Education logistics:
1. Campus education F2F
2. Decentralised education
3. Real time videoconference ed.
4. Web based asynchronous ed. (no times, no places)
…and mixtures, blends, hybrids
Is there a new education logistics around the corner, with a new normality of education access?
Categorisation built on ”distance” from a central
university campus?
..longer distance, more technology, lower status,
unclearer quality
Place language?
• ”Distance learning”, • ”decentralised education”, • ”education distribution”, • ”remote students”, • ”mobile learning” etc
…reflect now old limitations of teaching and learning as half-physical place-bound processes, not limitations of learning itself
Peter Tillberg, 1971, ”Blir du lönsam lille vän?”
Content-focused?Static?Ad hoc Bolt-on
A course and a half
Marshall Mcluhan on Media
• "New media may at first appear as mere codes of transmission for older achievement and established patterns of thought.”
• ”We shape our tools, then they shape us.” • "The new media are not bridges between man
and nature; they are nature."
F2F /Classroom Online worldDelivering the
content where?
How to blend places?
…but we can perhaps get beyond this, on another track
By Vaikoovery (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Disposition• Small-talk, my context of the talk• ”Blendedness” of learning• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”• Wrap up + questions
Luciano Floridi on Digital Dualism• “…we are probably the last generation to
experience a clear difference between offline and online.”
• “…we are constructing the new environment that will be inhabited by future generations.”
• “As a consequence of such re-ontologization of our ordinary environment, we shall be living in an infosphere that will become increasingly synchronized (time), delocalised (space) and correlated (interactions).”
• “…it is now actually happening in our kitchen.”
The learner is always here and now
when he learns
Like Descartes:
Cogito, ergo sum
Sum res cogitans
”Well, this was my introduction lecture to the course. Until next time we meet, read texts X and Y do assignment Z – why not meet with some friends, perhaps in the library and work together. Begin in time to read the course literature – there is much to study before the exam in the end of next month.” (a lot of time perspectives?)
Time as a cornerstone of the industrial age – objective, self-evident, nothing to doubt…? If You want something done, schedule it!
The now is a product of the past and a start of the coming
Time as subjective and relative – all have their own time, dependent on development movement, etc
The now is all there is – but it contains a presence of the past and future
”I know what time is – until somebody asks me” St Augustine
Teaching time? Learning time?
Einstein - Minkowski
Is it all about time?
• If most students can learn anything given enough time and help…
• …then it can be the course concept itself, with its fixed time, that makes some students successful and other fail
• …but it was worse earlier in history
+
=
Oral transmission from classic sources Book printing
Blended learning, 1.0?
Blended learning 1.0, what happened?
In a short perspective?
Education revolution?
Hype?
More learning?
Teacher role changes?
Teachers worried about their jobs?
And in the longer perspective?
Spreading of ideas easier
Monopoly of Catholic church ceases
Modern science step by step
Mass media, democracy, freedom of speech
Knowledge society
We often overestimate effects
in the shorter perspective, and
underestimate effects in the longer perspective?
Disposition• Small-talk, my context of the talk• ”Blendedness” of learning• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”• Wrap up + questions
TIME SHIFTING?
The shift between synchronous and asynchronous elements
in a course is a key
to the understanding and planning
of blended learning
Very trivial?
In a course we meet regularly and do
work on our own in between meetings
Graphic from Norberg, Dziuban, Moskal (2011) A Time Based Blended Learning Model, Emerald, On the Horizon Journal 19:3, by permission
Meetings and non-meetings…so what when adding IT?
1) We support and organise this work better with IT (LMS etc)
2) More possibilities to do things asynchronously with IT
3) We move activities from here
to here
4) We replace some room meetings with other synchronous forms of meetings
5) We connect easier activites here
With activities here
Michael Power, Blended Online Learning – http://www.bold-research.org
Time shift mechanisms?
• The learning magic is in the transition?• Combining synchronous and asynchronous
events• - so they reinforce one another• - so students are constantly engaged• - so students are helped to get a sustainable
workload over course time
Disposition• Small-talk, my context of the talk• ”Blendedness” of learning• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”• Wrap up + questions
Agile frameworks for pacing
Scrum in rugby, image in public domain http://cybernations.wikia.com/wiki/File:Cataduanes-rugby-scrum.jpg
Scrum
Problem: asynchronous work can be done tomorrow as well
• The more asynchronous, the more risk for procrastination
• Procrastinating individuals don`t handle flexibility well
”This is very much like our Scrum time boxes
in agile software production processes.”
Agile project frameworks: Scrum, XP, Lean, Atern
• Just a thought experiment• Courses are not software projects, but similarities in
some process characteristics• I want to generate ideas
• Agile@ibm developing Learning solutions• Agile methods in computing programming project courses • Tesar, M. & Scieber, S. (2010) Managing Blended Learning Scenarios by Using Agile E-learning Development• See ”The Scrum Guide”
Background: Waterfall model
Critique:Inefficient use of time
Bad transparencyDeadline delays
Bad codeNon-sustainable workloads
Unhappy customers
Big design up
front?
Perfectionism and deadlines just don´t work well together
Scrum
Atern
XP
Lean
Scrum crash course3 Roles1. Product owner2. Scrum master3. Development
team
4 Ceremonies1. Sprint planning2. Daily scrum meeting3. Sprint Review4. Sprint Retrospective
3 Artifacts1. Product backlog2. Sprint backlog3. Burndown chart
From intellijens.com
Idea 1: Thinking in ”Time boxes”
Shorter periods within a course, with own deadlines, resources, deliverables
- for collaborative learning - Linking together synchronous, asynchronous
and semisynchronous modalities
- Time box, scope, quality – which to compromise?
TIME BOX
WHY TIME BOXES? WHY NOT CALL IT MODULES?
Times boxes are like Russian dolls, and each comes with resources, deadline, deliverables
Idea 2: Planning Poker?
Source: Marketing image on http://www.agile42.com/en/agile-coaching-company/agile-scrum-tools/planning-poker/
Idea 2: Planning Poker?
• ”Poker” - show of cards at the same time• Prioritization game with MOSCOW cards(Must have, Should have, Could have, Wont happen this time)
• Time / workload estimation with Fibonacci numbers (1,2,3,5,8, 13, 21, 34 etc) , nr 8 is a reference object known to all
• Discussion, iteration, etc
• Helping student see their work as tasks to do, prioritize and estimate time consumption
Idea 3: Transparency of team work
• Kanban board? …or just facebook updates of studying activities
• Check in and out backlog items
A simple Kanban board, wikimedia Commons By Jeff.lasovski (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Image from Trrello.com
Idea 4: Daily Standup, (Daily Scrum Meeting)
• Short update, 3 questions, standing up, max 15 minutes duration:– What did I do yesterday?– What am I going to do today?– Are there any problems? Sprint/Scrum master is managing an impediment list,
impediments should be removed within 24 hours
In courses – weekly and online, for all?
”Status reports”
Space-time
• Spatiotemporality• Spatialization of time• Temporalization of space• Time compression• Space compression
Disposition• Small-talk, my context of the talk• ”Blendedness” of learning• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”• Q&A
”Blended” as a ”creation myth”
• As it once happened, it will always continue?• …a distance learning teacher used his
methods in a campus class…• …or a traditional teacher became ambitious
(or lazy) and used new tools…• The first happening is a pattern to follow
rigourously?• Our forefathers made it right, then it
deteriorates…?• …but must we be that conservative?
When will we stop talking about ”blended”?
• Is the printed book a problem? (once was…) • When technology becomes useful and works,
we don´t call it technology any longer (Hinssen)
• Re-ontologization (Floridi)• Dialectical pattern? Conflict thesis and
antithesis becomes a synthesis? • …containing both but being something new?• New normality of education is forming?
