Tuesday, February 24, 2015

A New Challenge in My Professional Life: Blended Learning


Just yesterday, February 23rd, I started a new online course - "Becoming a Blended Learning Designer" on Canvas Network. I'm really excited about it, for it is a challenge I need to face as an EFL and a Teacher Development Course teacher working with this model. 

Let the challenge begin.The main aspect of this week 1 reading “Understanding Blended Learning” is, for me, the idea of connectivism, which gives special emphasis on the importance of sharing information, ideas, resources, and networks. In my EFL teaching context, with a Teacher Development Course group, enforcing this concept among my students seems to be fundamental. Instead of focusing on lecturing, I’m urged to provide the students with the various resources I find appropriate to the course objectives so that they can choose the ones that fit their needs. Shifting from a more traditional paradigm to a more student-centered model can surely foster opportunities for students to create their own learning pathways.