Blended learning, online learning, and face-to-face learning are all different modalities of teaching. You can expect to see all of these modalities at some point in the 20-21 school year, some had that pleasure this past year as well. According to Brodersen and Melluso (2017) the greatest change in teacher communication occurs not when moving from face-to-face to a blended modality, but instead when moving from the blended to online modality.
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Teacher Communication by Teaching Format
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While Brodersen and Melluso (2017) do not speculate on the reasons why, that is almost exclusively what blogs do, so we will. Possible factors:
- The majority of America’s 3.7 million teachers (K-12 Enrollment Statistics, 2020) are confident in their physical cues to communicate (proximity, facial expressions, tone of voice, any informal cue)
- The basis of blended learning is “at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home” (Clayton Christensen Institute, 2016); without a physical place to learn together the learning is online – and so is the communication style.
- The age of the learner may necessitate younger or less mature students receive different types of communication: redundant communication with parents, more frequent communication, more specific/actionable communication
- College-bound students, and their families, may be more open to simulations of advance post-secondary learning environments, within the high school years
- Teachers with high numbers of fo students per class may find communication in the online modality more efficient
- Younger students may need more common teaching than older students, student-centric practices
When we think back to this past #RemoteLearning spring, realize that this was NOT strictly online learning {READ: Remote Learning is Something Different}. None of the procedures were stood up and tested in advance; families who expected a continuation of education may have only known face-to-face and blended instruction. Teachers may have only known face-to-face and blended communication techniques – which are both very similar to traditional, in-person school communication (Brodersen & Melluso, 2017).
Considering the face-to-face and blended modalities you may have used prior to the #RemoteLearning event of this past spring, what were your largest shifts in communication?
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References
Brodersen, R. M., & Melluso, D. (2017). Summary of research on online and blended learning programs that offer differentiated learning options (REL 2017–228). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Central. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED572935.pdf.
Clayton Christensen Institute. (2016). Blended Learning. Retrieved from https://www.christenseninstitute.org/blended-learning/.
K-12 Enrollment Statistics (2020): Totals by Grade Level + More. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://educationdata.org/k12-enrollment-statistics/.