Blended Learning

Well, what a week!

I've just returned from 2 days at the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) annual Training Providers Conference in Birmingham where I was featured during a keynote speech about the advantages of blended learning.

In January 2017, my college (Cardiff and Vale College) launched a new blended learning course for the AAT Foundation Certificate in Accounting qualification. This new mode of delivery sits alongside our traditional classroom based courses but is very different as it takes advantage of technology to deliver lessons even before learners come into the classroom. Some may call this flipped learning but, given that the lessons consist of online video micro-lessons with associated questions and tests followed up with in-class lessons every 2-3 weeks, I think the term 'Blended' is more appropriate to this model.

We are proud to be working with an excellent team from Mindful Education based in London who provide all the shiny online resources and in-class questions. This a new venture for us and, so far, we've seem 90%+ success in assessments and I see no reason for this trend to continue for the remaining assessments with the current cohort.

There appears to be a growing trend for colleges to want to develop courses using technology and blended learning is certainly this (our model is anyway). The key thing is that the 'personal touch' is maintained with face-to-face contact - something a lot of distance learning courses fail to have. I pride myself on being contactable and providing this valuable element to the learner experience. 

However, face-to-face contact with a tutor is not the only benefit for the learner - there is the social element too as learners can build learning networks in class and, if they wish, online. We've been running a programme Facebook page for a number of years and the blended learning learners have all joined this community whilst also being part of the smaller blended community in class. I am a great believer in learners providing learners with help and the Facebook group helps to promote this. Tutors moderate the group but learners are encouraged to post questions and provide answers to the questions posted by others.

Anyway, after a full week of teaching and a conference, I am ready for a little break so will sign off now - but there will be much more on the blended approach in the coming months.

Hello world!

This blog will follow my journey through developing some teaching resources using a range of technology based tools.

I will look at using Microsoft's OneNote as a one-stop shop for my learners to have access to lesson materials, videos and podcasts. I will also be trialling the use of digital ink in my marking of classwork. 

The main hardware I'll be using is a Dell Venue Pro tablet with keyboard and pen. The tablet has 128Gb storage and 4Gb RAM (I would love to buy a Surface Pro 4 but just cannot afford it!). Operating system is Windows 10 with Office 365 as my preferred office solutions tool. I will also be using a laptop with 1Tb storage and 8Gb RAM - also running Windows 10 and Office 365/2016.

Why am I doing this?

Recently, my employer - the largest training provider in Wales - committed to investing in its staff to develop their Digital Literacy and ability to use a range of tools.

I've been an avid user of IT for years and have tried a number of different ideas in the classroom to enhance my teaching. Some of these ideas have been successful, others have been spectacular failures but, whatever the outcome, I've always reflected on the experience and moved on to develop further ideas.

A little background about me

In the early 1990's, I left the working world to return to full-time education to study for a Business degree. In the first year of the course, we were required to complete a module using spreadsheet package Lotus 123. This was in the days before MS Windows had arrived in the university so all commands were based on keyboard shortcuts.

The lecturer for this unit, whilst knowledgeable and technically competent, failed to appreciate that his learners needed to lean not just what to do, but why they were doing it and, more importantly, the technical language we would need to succeed. I became a technophobe of the first order.

My experience in this class led me to considering withdrawing from the course because I just could not see what I was doing nor what I needed to do. However, one day in November 1992, everything suddenly clicked into place and I surged through the module and came out with a Distinction pass months later. I continued to embrace technology and completed further IT based modules with similar results.

My experiences in university led me to question the way the use of technology was taught but, more importantly, made me realise that a whole new world had opened to me. Within a year, I had a bought my first desktop PC, installed Windows 3.1 and Office and had become a self-taught proficient user of Word and Publisher.

In 1997, I found the internet and, before long, was connected to the world - and I've been here ever since.

Throughout my 25 years of using technology in my daily life, one thing has remained constant, I've taught myself most of the skills I needed to get on and played around with MS Excel and Word to produce a range of tools to make my life easier. In 2009, I fell into teaching Accounting courses at my local college and took my skills and used them to develop a range of self-marking assessments for my learners. These were well received by the learners and encouraged me to develop a wider range of tools.

Since 2009, I've continued to use Excel and Word to produce handouts and self-marking quizzes but have also played around with a range of different tools to make learning more fun and interactive and, indeed, more effective. I've used Socrative, Kahoot and Quizlet to produce quizzes for use in class - this meant that the "No mobile phones" sign was replaced with a "Bring your own device" sign. I've created online flashcard study aids for learners to use to help them learn formulae and definitions and revise for exams.

I have always used the college's virtual learning environment (VLE) Moodle and have played around with a number of its features and tools to try to make teaching and learning more engaging.

In recent months, I've been playing with some cloud-based tools to produce some presentations in an attempt to flip learning for some theory hungry content. Flipping the classroom allows me to use classroom time to provide much more support to learners as they come to class equipped with basic understanding of topic areas and can then work to develop higher order skills. This approach is very much in its infancy but will be something I will be doing more of in the coming months.

I've spent a number of hours recently completing some of Microsoft Education's e-learning on a range of subjects - e.g. how to use a range of software products - to try to develop and enhance my skills.

I use Twitter to tweet/retweet relevant information to a small group of followers and run a closed Facebook group for learners on our accounting courses. 

So from the technophobe of the 1990's I hope you can see that my journey has come a long way - and I still have a long way to go. Join me on my journey - feel free to post comments or questions.