E-learning occurs where students are physically separate from their teacher and classmates. Learning occurs through things such as: Digital course materials, online discussions, e-mail, instant messages, blogs, news announcements, online calendar, drop boxes, online grade tools are used and even through the use of web conferences.
Blended learning occurs within a face-to-face class that happens at a specific place and time. Blended learning combines the support of classroom learning with the flexibility of e-learning. It can occur in a school computer lab, where students have the ability to access and complete course content online and consult with their teachers on specific projects or topics. Computers and other devices are used to work on and complete assignments before submitting them to their teachers.
Here’s a great and informative video to explain the fundamentals of Blended learning! It uses examples and pictures. It’s a little monotone and dry but explains the concept well.
Examples of Blended Learning:
Primary: http://wonderopolis.org/
Wonderopolis is a website and blog where each day, an intriguing question is posted and explored different ways. This is a way to both inform and encourage new questions, sparking new paths of wonder and discovery in family, students and classroom settings. This extends learning beyond just the classroom using technology. This service is excellent as an information source for students with learning disabilities as no signup or direct work is needed to be done to use it. There is also a function that you can click on paragraphs, sentences or even single words and the computer reads them out to you.
Junior: http://www.desire2learn.com/
This Learning Management System can be used in and out of the classroom now for students. Desire2Learn provides easy-to-use teacher interfaces to setup and deliver course material. Features include: online tests, polls to provide instant student feedback, while collaborative tools like forums or wikis can allow students to work together in-class or from home.
This type of learning is similar to WebCT and Sakai that I used at Western during my undergrad. Also Isaak for this course! They are used to deliver course material and be able to interact with your teacher and fellow students in the class. They can run courses that occur fully online (which isn’t used yet for Junior level courses) or create what is necessary to have blended courses.
Intermediate: http://www.slideshare.net/
SlideShare is a slide hosting service. Offers users the ability to upload and share publicly or privately PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Adobe PDF Portfolios. This is a beneficial service for ELL students as well because it is used globally and can be shared in different languages and content.
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