Blended Learning — At the core of children learning
“Teachers need to integrate technology seamlessly into the curriculum instead of viewing it as an add-on, an afterthought, or an event.” — Heidi-Hayes Jacobs
I recall how school used to be conducted in my early days as a young girl in primary school. Show up at school, be on time, sit in class and wait for the teacher to conduct his/her lessons. Our kind of setup did not allow us to question teachers because the structure and conditions were not favourable for that to happen. Teachers had a defined role and that was to deliver a certain lesson and give tests or assignments. This still happens today in many traditional school setups. The success of a child’s education is highly determined by how supportive and invested their parents are in making sure they learn more by offering alternative coaching and learning experiences.
We were not given the opportunity to explore more and be curious at an early age. Questioning a teacher was unheard of in some schools and it was termed as being disrespectful to the teacher. Fact is, what happened in my early learning days is still happening today. Many children from low income families do not have an opportunity to explore education in a fun and more rewarding way. Traditional methods of learning limit these children to learn from a teacher and they never get to know any other way of doing things.
My work with Wings Learning Centres in India opened me to a new concept called Blended learning. What happens when a child is allowed to explore with other learning methods? What if children are allowed to learn from each other via peer-to-peer activities? What if children are allowed to explore their curiosity and creativity through fan learning games? What if learning was more fan and allowed the child to have the independence they needed to pace their learning? These are some of the questions we wanted to address with the learning centres while using technology as the core of delivery.
Communication (in English) is one of the biggest challenge with low income schools in rural India. Both students and teachers communicate in Hindi and Kannada which are the locally spoken languages. Classes are also conducted in these local languages. English is introduced later on in the curriculum and students find a hard time of learning the language in their later years. Job seekers and employers on the other hand desire English speaking employees for the highly paid jobs which creates a disadvantage for the students who attend low income schools.
Wings Learning Centres is implementing blended learning as a ways of addressing some of the gaps mentioned above. The blended learning method used focuses on three concepts;- technology based learning, self learning and peer to peer learning. My experience observing this process was very rewarding. A lot happens when you give children the flexibility to learn new concepts in a fun and engaging way. The excitement of including technology in learning and allowing children to collaborate on projects develops their curiosity and desire to learn more.
I spent a few days observing the pilot centre as children were given tablets for the first time. Without instruction, a few students were able to navigate the tablets and use them. Once they got their first assignment they started learning in a new way. Suddenly they had all this power to learn at their own pace and also collaborate with their peers if they were not sure about a concept. That’s what I call empowerment.
When children are allowed to be curious and discover learning in an environment that enables them to. They grow up to become better confident adults.
While the addition of technology was exciting for the kids, it’s important to note that the implementation of the process also comes with challenges. One of which was to educate the parents to understand how the introduction of technology was going to give their children a better understanding of concepts.
Parents have to fully understand the concept of blended learning so that they can encourage their children to take it up. A lot of times low income families only care about their children passing exams and going to the next level. A concept like blended learning may not give such results short term but aims to build a better child for the future. Children have to change their mindset too because most of them come from a traditional teaching setup and a concept such as “collaborating” in class is alien to them. They are taught to “hide” their answers and only present them to teachers, this new way teaches them to collaborate, to ask questions, to be open minded and to get more than just a correct answer.
Few weeks after introducing blended learning at our pilot centre I can already see many positive changes from the children who walked through our centres the first time. They are now able to use technology to work on their collaborative tasks and they have learned that their biggest resource is themselves because they all think differently, and can help each other a lot. I have confidence that this new way of learning will make these children better.
