What is blended learning?

By Jim Stergios
December 30th, 2011

A number of readers of recent posts on virtual (or digital) learning have asked for some definitions around jargon used by proponents and experts. I wanted to share a brief video on “blended learning,” a term that you hear increasingly, especially in states where charter public schools and district schools are attempting to integrate online tools into the classroom.

Blended learning is, if you will, that broad area between the traditional classroom, where you have a teacher lecturing and teaching a class of kids, and exclusive use by a student of online resources to drive their learning. The video embedded below was written by Anthony Kim and Michael Thompson of Education Elements. It is a bit dry and a tad jargony itself (e.g., “unleashing learning velocity”), but it does a nice job of laying out the four principal models emerging in the blended learning area.

The Fundamentals of Blended Learning from Education Elements on Vimeo.

Crossposted at Boston.com’s Rock the Schoolhouse. Follow me on twitter at @jimstergios, or visit Pioneer’s website.