July 8, 2014 - 14:01
While I didn't have the chance to attend the conference, I processed the recordings for upload to YouTube and archiving, so I had a chance to listen to/watch parts of most of the talks. Like Rebecca, I've also learned more about blended learning ideas & practices as part of our internship.
I have some experience with blended learning courses at Bryn Mawr, mostly consisting of use of online tools as supplements to in-class work or traditional homework. French 101 & 102 (Intro to literature/culture I and II, respectively) use an online homework system, one of my quarters of intro bio used an online textbook with integrated questions, and a few other classes have done similar things. Chem 103 & 104 use an online homework system called OWL, and the professors give lectures (& occassional demonstrations). I found the OWL online system to be a poor substitute for in-person interaction. I think that class would have been better off if it were flipped, watching lectures at home and then coming in to class for to discuss/ask questions and do problems there without having to take extra time to go to office hours (we're all so busy even when we do understand everything!). Rebecca summed it up well when she said in her Complexifying post that in her economics class, she also felt that the online questions "gave me a fair amount of anxiety and didn't truly explain when I made an error, only providing a limited explanation, the answer, and no real human feedback."
From what I've heard & read about BL practices, the most important thing is that if professors are going to have a blended classroom, it has to be done right. Otherwise, the students won't get anything out of it (or at least, nothing they couldn't have got from the standard combination of classroom lecture/instruction/discussion + homework/reading). I think that ideally with blended learning, assigned reading/watching/work at home should help students to learn the concepts, whereas the classroom should be a space for real discussion, learning, and exploring. Doing problem sets while in class, for instance, would be much more useful than having to complete online (or traditional pen-and-paper) homework assignments with no support and often little feedback or explanation of errors, with the added stress of due dates or being timed.
Professors have to 1) really know how to use the tools & 2) actually take a look at the tools (whether it's an online textbook, problem sets, etc.) to make sure everything is relevant for the students. Professors should to use the tools that are at their disposal, but be careful not to overuse these tools by using them to replace nice, old-fashioned classroom discussions.