Blended Learning: Making Education Accessible for all

Blended Learning is the future of education. Specially, if we wish accessible education for all.

For a long time we have been talking about putting the child in the center of the all learning. Child-led learning, interest based learning, active learning; basically giving the control of the learning back to the learner.

Studies have shown that children do not like to go to school (they do have some aspects that they like, like their friends and sometimes if in luck a teacher who steps out of the crowd and sparks the curiosity of the learners through innovative teaching methods and sometimes an aha moment in form of a unique idea that they get to hear about at the school premises, yet rare and mostly out of sheer luck. The rest of the routine day is a drag.). The primary reason for not liking school is lack of freedom. In a typical school, the child will be expected to queue up when going anywhere, sit through blocks of 50 minute classes that they did not plan, maybe aren't even interested in and all this while maintain perfect discipline with a finger on their lips.

We are coercing the student to learn. Even though a child is naturally inclined and interested in learning; but through coercion, nonquestionable authoritarian culture, archaic disciplinary practices and a day that is structured and monitored to the last second, the schools are killing the fun and excitement of learning.

On the other hand of the problem there are 22.6 million boys and girls out of school; a whopping 44% of all children in Pakistan and 43% of government schools are in a dangerous or dilapidated condition and lack basic facilities such as furniture, bathrooms, boundary walls, electricity and running water. 21% government primary schools are operating with single teacher and 14% with single classroom. The classrooms are overcrowded with 50 plus pupils in a classroom at a time. (Source: Alif Ailaan).

It is time to rethink education. And it has to be done at the grassroot level.

We need to put the learners back in the driving seats. Give them back the control over the learning. It sounds like common sense. Unfortunately it is not common practice.

Blended Learning is at the Heart of Differentiated Instruction

Fact of the matter is, in a classroom of 25 plus students, differentiated instruction is not possible. The teacher cannot address the unique needs and requirements of each student individually. It is not possible without making use of technology and reinventing the classroom models. The learners of the 21st century are born into a digital age. They are already familiar with the use gadgets and technology and are already ahead of the millennials and xillennials in terms of their understanding and comfort level with the technology. While it is still important to impart the knowledge about HOW to use technology, even more important is the fact that we need to teach the students to use technology FOR learning. Just because they know how to operate a device, does not necessarily mean that they also know how to use it for learning. This period of transition offers an unexplored opportunity in an unchartered territory, to the teachers for reinventing their pedagogy and using the models of blended learning and the rich collection of educational apps and websites, extend the learning beyond the classrooms. Technology and blended learning solutions offer the leverage to personalize the learning and address each student at their individual mastery levels.

On the other hand, the BL Models allow a single teacher to take leverage of the technology and help them in managing larger classrooms by creating subsets, assigning different tasks to the subsets, and then paying more attention to the students who need it the most. For some subsets, the instructions will come from a digital lesson a shared computer, while another with more knowledge of content, can spend time on guided practice, while another can interact with the teacher in a smaller group and have more in-depth discussions. All in the same classroom; delegating some of the instructional role to the gadgets can allow even the most crowded classrooms to transform into a collaborative space for learning.

Intelligent Adaptive Systems: Replacing Formative Assessments

Now lets take it one step further; Intelligent Adaptive Systems. These are the systems that learn with the learner. If the student hesitates, takes an unconventional approach to solving a problem, or gets the right answer after a few attempts, the system records the data in real time and provides useful insights to the mentors and coaches by highlighting the areas that need improvement and guided practice as well as the areas that the student has already mastered and where they are now ready to advance to the next level. These systems provide real-time feedback essentially replacing the need for any more formative assessments (which are generally made to fit the whole class and in most cases aren't modified to suit each students individual understanding level).

Holistic Solution

Blended learning offers flexibility, inclusiveness, personalization, control over pace and content and allows each and every student their share of voice and learning freedom. At the same time, it also allows the teacher to develop deeper connections and understanding for each of their students interests, needs and areas for improvement. For example, by using a flipped classroom model, where the content is reviewed at home in advance, and guided practice is done in class, the teacher has time to attend to multiple students and offer one-on-one support and coaching. It allows the teacher more time and space to pay individual attention to the students who need it the most; specially viable in a public school setting.

It is imperative for Pakistan Education system to keep pace, and familiarize itself with the changing trends in the way we educate our children. In the worlds of H. G. Wells, "Civilization is a race between education and catastrophe!". We need to choose education; and education for all, which is only possible by adapting the new blended learning models to offer the much needed leverage to the teachers so they can reach each student and cater to each student's unique requirements, interests, skills, abilities and knowledge levels.

About the Author

Sameera is a graduate of Institute of Business Administration with experience in product management and research. She is certified in Early Childhood Care & Education (IBA), Future of Education (UCL) and Blended Learning (University of Leeds). She is passionate about bringing change to the education systems of Pakistan by creating awareness about Blended Learning and Self-Organized Learning Systems (SOLE). She is a doting mother of 3 beautiful children and spends her time in writing and reading books about education, whenever her kids let her!

You can reach her at her FB page: SOLE Pakistan