I wrote a post on blended learning a month or so ago. Clive Shepherd invited me to speak at last Friday's Elearning Network meeting on blended learning, which I did. As a personal challenge it was quite a step forward as I've never spoken at an elearning conference before, so I proved to myself I could do that.
The gist was much like my previous post - the traditional 'front-loading' of self-study before a face to face event is one way to do it, and the 'traditional' way to many trainers, but it's not the only way. Seeing the face to face event as the launch pad for work using different media is another way (familiar to, for example, OU students) with much to recommend it, but it requires a different role for the trainer.
On the way to the event, however, I was reading a book about the early 20th century shaman Gurdjieff talking about attention, and it prompted me to realise that the asynchronous part of any programme makes a very substantial demand on a person's intention (to follow through over a period of time) and attention (not to be distracted), in ways that are less of a threat in a face to face session. All the more so nowadays, when there seems to be a wide acceptance of the idea of multitasking, despite recent rebuttals, and where we are actively encouraged to have bits of information flying at us all the time from RSS, Twitter, SMS, email etc etc.
So while we can use the online domain in new and creative ways, the competition for the learner's attention is fiercer by virtue of it being online, and the learner may have little idea of the personal discipline needed to manage all this and sustain an aim or good intention over time. It may fall to the trainer to keep it all going with regular prompts, reminders, challenges and tasks, and to the line manager also, with whatever carrots and sticks they can deploy. It was simpler when you just went on a course and that was that, wasn't it?
My thanks to Clive and the Network for the opportunity to speak and to learn from the other speakers.
My original post
Mark Barthelemy's followup post
Presentations (including mine) from the Elearning Network day
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