The new blended learning?

Dr George RobertsSolstice conferenceEdge Hill University

5 June 2014

Acknowledgements

• Richard Francis– Francis, R & Roberts, G. 2014. “Where Is the New

Blended Learning? Whispering Corners of the Forum.” Brookes Electronic Journal of Learning and Teaching (BeJLT) 6 (1)

– http://bejlt.brookes.ac.uk/paper/where-is-the-new-blended-learning-whispering-corners-of-the-forum/

• Mary Dean

• Greg Benfield

Outline

• Introduction: the future is now

• What blended learning was

• The changing context

• The beginning of the new era

• Transforming teaching

• Conclusion: into unfamiliar territory

• Discussion: implications for teaching

Enhancement?

THE FUTURE IS NOW

More, Faster, Cheaper?

Quantitative measures cluster around the idea of “efficiency”

• Marks, numbers enrolled and completed, league table position, fee income, cost of provision

“... an industrialised process, on a truly massive scale, made

possible by new technology.”

I for one think they are pretty darn impressive and deserve to be appreciated (Ives)

or

If Santa paid his elves the minimum wage while pushing them to the limits, and sacking them if they take three sick breaks in any three-month

period… and avoiding tax everywhere. (Cadwalladr)

the role and place of universities in the vast

virtualised spaces that we have created

where is the new blended learning?

WHAT BLENDED LEARNING WAS

flexible, active, collaborative and professionally authentic

pedagogies

1. the provision of supplementary resources for courses that are conducted predominantly along traditional lines ...

2. transformative course level practices underpinned by radical course designs

3. students taking a holistic view of the interaction of technology and their learning, including the use of their own technologies, (Sharpe et al 2006, 2-3).

distinctions become blurred

• between face-to-face and online working,

• between ‘conventional’ and e-learning

Social learning is aided by regular intakes of drinks and snacks and

mobile phone conversations

It is difficult to argue that the physical and virtual dimensions of

the learning experience are still distinct, or in any way opposed.

THE CHANGING CONTEXT

Collaboration

• Estates Management

• Computer Services

• Library

• Student Support Services

• Staff developers

• Learning technologists

• Academics

• Students

Context

• Change of government

• Fundamental restructuring of the higher education funding regime

• The place of private (principally corporate) enterprise in the provision of higher education.

• The role of employment

the landscape of

the virtual world has

altered beyond

recognition

A fundamental concept in computing, that hardware,

operating systems, applications and data should be rigorously

demarcated has collapsed under the iOS operating system, Google’s Android and the virtualisation of

computing infrastructures

the University encourages employees to make reasonable and appropriate use of social media as

part of their work

In practice, the pedagogical models have hardly changed at all

Where change has been most evident

• Blending the once largely distinct domains of “learning” and “socialising”

• Foregrounding the transactional component of the social learning space as a “one stop shop” for student services

Have we failed?

Pedagogically

THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW ERA

A space between

• the ideal and the real• now and then in both directions• physical and digital• paper and screen• personal and social• the curriculum and life-wide learning• our selves and all others• institution and teacher • identity and communities

The physical and virtual spaces of today mark the end of one era and

the beginning of another.

Underpinning

Heterotopia –(Foucault 1984)

Third Space –(Bhabha 2004)

We are in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of the

near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed.

(Foucault 1984)

The third space

the uniqueness of each person, actor or context is a blend, or hybrid,

resisting normalisation or cultural inscription,

generating a position against all identity politics by denying privilege to any originary culture

It is the ‘inter’ … the inbetween space – that carries the burden of the

meaning of culture...

And by exploring this Third Space, we may elude the politics of polarity and emerge as the others of our selves.

(Bhabha 2004)

• As soon as a space becomes formalisedas a plan, a VLE or a building, a third space will be opened by, to and for the people who inhabit the space, the very people whom the space seeks to direct, to channel, to normalise.

• People will only ever partially inhabit any space and they will always occupy it to some extent on their own terms.

Viceroy’s Palace

Tavern of revolution

the space of both community and

identity

TRANSFORMING TEACHING

a place between the

virtual and the real, whose genius loci is the teacher

In this sense of liminality, discomfort and uncertainty,

blended learning might be seen as a threshold concept

Transformation

• Social model of identity development and activity-based learning

• People experience a disorienting dilemma which leads to a deep structural shift in their world-view

• A person’s susceptibility to transformation depends on where they are prepared to take themselves

The blended learning debate has been locked in an antagonism

How is authentic experience to permeate the controlled

institutional environments?

Where once the Internet seemed a vast third space, a vast “whispering

corner”, it now appears hegemonised by corporate

interests.

CONCLUSION: INTO UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY

the main functions of teaching is to inspire

learners to venture into unfamiliar territory

a contingent hegemony of

global corporate interests, where

international competition is

normalised and consumer debt a

virtue

Digital literacy as an attribute of individual

competence - is giving way to digital responsibility

Learners create their own learning environment outside,

inside and in-despite of the intentions of the institution

Moves to more open forms of

education have opened the sluice gates

Physical spaces as a central element of learning appear

ever more fluid

Reclaiming space for teaching through blended learning includes

reclaiming technologies as intermediate tools

DISCUSSION: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING

Summarise• Blended learning, itself, is a threshold concept: liminal,

uncomfortable, uncertain and transforming• Each person and context is a hybrid: utterly unique• No cultural origin is privileged• Learning occurs in the gaps: the spaces between• Learning growth is non linear• People only partly inhabit any space and do so on their

own terms• All learning spaces are co-created• Social, learning, and transactional space are blending

physically and digitally• The spirit of the third space is “the teacher”• Any enclosure of space requires force, power or

violence

Therefore

• If all learning IS blended learning

• AND neither the physical NOR the digital has primacy

• AND each person and place is unique

• How do we respond?

What are the implications for the new blended learning

• Adding value to large group teaching using technology

• Creative use of technologies in the classroom

• The role and use of online classrooms

• MOOCS and developments in online course structures

• Approaches to enhancement of learning, teaching and assessment

Each, choose one (or more?) off that list and make a quick note on

paper, or Twitter, or …

What are the implications for your particular context?

For me, these follow

• Acknowledge the tension in all teaching

• Avoid totalising syntheses of either content or process – even this!

• Practice “bounded openness”: provide multiple ways in and out

• Respect the uniqueness of each and every person

Blended learning design

• Activity-based– we do or make things

• Experiential – self-evaluative, practitioner-centred, pragmatic

• Dialogic• Reflective

– Bringing experience into scholarly evidence

• Participatory– The teacher is also a learner

• Community-located• Outcomes-led

Thank you

Dr George Roberts

OCSLD, Oxford Brookes University

June 2014

groberts@brookes.ac.uk