Week 4: To blend or to fully online...that is the question?

Monday, September 20, 2010

During this week, we spent a lot of time looking at "The Continued Expansion of Blended and Fully Online Learning" as the title of week 4's agenda stated.

Before we get into this weeks topic, let me give you a little background as why this is one of the best week of this class that we have for this semester. In the spring when it was time to register for classes, I had no idea which classes to take. The reason being my first year as an IST student was very much structured as the majority of the classes that I had taken were almost all requirements for the Masters of Science program. Since the second year left it open to the classes that I could take, my choices seemed limitless however this made it difficult as I was not sure what my niche was in terms of IST. I first decided to talk to both doctoral students and second year masters' students to get a sense of the classes that they would recommend. Long story short, 2 of the 3 classes suggested to me had one common theme, Dr. Bonk as the Professor. Secondly, I have a wonderful professional relationship with my advisor and I value her opinions and suggestions so I thought she was the perfect person to get advise from. Once again, the reoccurring "theme" of Dr. Bonk popped up. I decided to do a little research on this professor by looking first at his Indiana University School of Education Profile C J Bonk, Ph. D. The information written was quite basic however he did have a link to his website. Professor Curt Bonk's e-Learning World was what sold me. He had so much to look at that I did not know where to start. I simply decided to click on random links and just see what he was all about. In the 30 minutes that I explored his page I was both fascinated and anxious all at the same time. I was fascinated to see how a professor TRULY loved what he was doing with this life but at the same time I was anxious to know what I was getting myself into.

With all this said, this brings me to week 4 of this class. By something simple as Oncourse, C J Bonk, Ph. D profile, and Professor Curt Bonk's e-Learning World this showed howe important e-Learning is to our current education process. You may be thinking "How my friend?" I am glad you ask and I am about to explain. In this growing age and time, both blended learning and online learning have exploded exponentially especially over the past few years. At this point in time if you are even a grade school student less alone a college student and you have not been exposed to at least one of these phenomenal, then you must either be living in an electricity ridden, unexposed, submerged environment. Though this may should harsh, in a sense it is the truth. Why? Let us take Indiana University for example. It is  impossible to get a degree without at least receiving one's education through blended learning. All of IU's traditional campus classes are no longer "traditional" as they incorporate more than going to a classroom, sitting in a class, listening to a lecture, and going home to study through physical books. They use blended learning tools such as Oncourse, online tools specific to the class (i.e. CALM) or a website specific to a certain class (i.e. CJBonk's Syllabus) that in itself may have many links to external devices like articles, YouTube, or blogs for example.

The various articles that we had to read for this week from the Sloan Reports* had one major theme: the growing on online learning. Each of these reports talked about blended and online learning growing. If you did not realize it by now either by our society or from previous information in this blog, then I hope that these various Sloan Reports will help you to see this. We learn that education is Growing by degrees: Online education in the United States. People can not only get certifications and associates online, they can also get hefty degrees such as Ph. D's online. The question now how received are these degrees by U.S. corporations and the like? In the Sloan Report of Blending in: the extent and promise of blended education in USA, which was explored in 2007 talks about the increase of blended learning and it will continue to grow and become almost needed for years to come. Earlier I mentioned that e-Learning is not specific to Universities but also used among grade schools students. In the article K-12 Online Learning: A 2008 Survey of U.S. School District Administrators it explored students learning, school districts, and retention of those using e-Learning versus those using traditional. Obviously, those engaged in e-Learning were better prepared for the next phase in life (i.e. secondary school or even something simple as the next week of school).

We explored as well which more or less showed the same impact perceived in the Sloan Reports. One of the other articles that stuck to me was that of John F. Watson, A National Primer on K-12 Online Learning (April 2007). In he talked about the three positives on Online Learning. First, those who engaged in online learning especially the younger students had better written communication. Second, the time management skills of both the teacher and students were immensely improved. Third, those who  exhibited the use of online learning increased their technology figuration. For example, when they had any technology malfunction they were first more inclined to try to figure it out on their own than those who did not who were more inclined to either give up or immediately ask for help.

Online Learning is almost 100% essential in our society less alone internationally though we are focussing on the USA. For example, in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina occurred, those who went to school in that area needed a way to continue their education. Berkeley College played a role in helping to make this happen. Sharon Goldstein of Berkeley College explains the need for Online Education. Please see the video, Berkeley College Online: The Benefits of Online Learning, to hear her thoughts.

So to answer the original question at hand, "To blend or to fully online". You should know that answer by the conclusion of this blog if not before...Duh!


*Sloan Report (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) and Free Report Downloads.