The term blended learning was first
used in American literature and following what Gynther (2005) explains, it intends to understand the blend of traditional teaching and technology-based teaching making use of various pedagogical methods and different forms of technology.
As it was
said before, blended learning is mostly understood as a way of blending
face-to-face and technology-based teaching. Blended
learning does not intend to replace any method in particular; as Tiirmaa-Oras & Torrao (2007) say, its main intention is to merge the two
delivery modes into one, finding the right approach considering the
possibilities, advantages, aspects and different priorities in face-to-face and
technology-based teaching.
These two authors state that blended
learning is not a new approach, instead, what they consider new is the wide range of components in a blend so the teacher’s job would be to
decide the way in which these components should be blended to
produce right blends, constantly striking a balance between face-to-face
education and technological components in didactical methods.
Thorne (2003) suggests that blended learning, if it is to succeed, has to fit into the broader context i.e. that every time a teacher attempts to design, develop and
deliver different types of blends, the learning outcome must be in focus and this could be achieved by investigating with a look at learners, culture, learning resources, electronic
infrastructure, and so on.
The potential of blended learning is almost infinite and represents a natural evolution from traditional ways of learning
to a more personalized and focused way, so our task as future teachers would be to get
involved and give it a try.
Thorne, K. (2003).
Blended Learning: How to Integrate Online
and Traditional Learning. Great Britain: Kogan Page Limited
Tiirmaa-Oras, S.; Torrao, S. (2007). Blended Learning:
Research reports & examples of best practices. Estonia. University of
Tartu.
