Week 04 Reading Response -

Playing catch-up on week 04 today.

This chapter helps with thinking about using technology and creating/planning learning activities in a blended course.

"In both the face-to-face and online portions of a blended learning course, technologies can play supporting roles in the ways learning activities are experienced and content is encountered by students." - Blendkit Ch 4 reading 

Great chapter on looking at the connection between the online and face-to-face(ftf) parts of a blended/hybrid course that helps designers and faculty "get our feet wet" in designing learning activities appropriate for each component of the course (ftf and online) cohesively.

I really appreciated the table that offered definitions and resources related to five different types of learning activities along with information about using technology and tools to facilitate these activities.

Littlejohn and Pegler (2007) in Preparing for Blended e-Learning outline five learning activity techniques based on Laurillard’s Conversational Model. They produce the following matrix: 

(Here is an image of the table (note - links are not active) check out the article for more info.)

This tool alone helps us see how to dive deeper when looking at how we actually engage students and for what purpose in selecting and utilizing learning activities. 

In this way, we also shift our way of teaching, to be more student-focused, or student centered learning.  This article also shares the specific roles for Teachers and Learners, notes on planning blended learning activities, the benefits of using technology and looking at creating/finding resources and how you the instructor finds their role in teaching a blended course.