After reading the first chapter, I recognized the concept and principles of blended learning mentioned in the “Conceptual Framework” (Vaughan et al., 2013). After understanding this, I was surprised to find that blended learning has become a frequent occurrence in our learning. Especially during the epidemic, although we are in an online course, many of the concepts and principles of blended learning emerged. For example, encouraging connections between students and teachers, active learning, and an emphasis on time on task. And in the time since the end of the epidemic, many of the concepts and principles of blended learning can still be found in the teaching of the various courses we have experienced. Therefore, I think that as technology develops, blended learning models will become more and more frequent in students’ learning and will gradually become one of the most mainstream teaching methods.

However, I do not particularly agree with the statement in the article that ‘principles are essential for translating theoretical frameworks into practical strategies and techniques’ (Vaughan et al., 2013). In my understanding, the author is using ‘principles’ as the basis for practical strategies and techniques, both of which should be constructed based on principles if the theoretical framework is to be realized. But in my opinion, technical support should be the most important. Since the core of blended learning is the integration of face-to-face and online learning activities, many of these activities require technical support. In other words, the implementation of blended learning is dependent on a certain learning support platform, and a mature learning platform is an important factor that can ensure the effectiveness of blended learning and the application of the principles.

In addition, the article mentions that ‘simply adding online components does not necessarily meet the threshold for blended learning as defined here’ (Vaughan et al., 2013). However, if we look at the description of the ‘principles’ at the end of the article, the technology in practice is built on the ‘principles’ and this is an act of adding online components. Perhaps what the authors are trying to say is that online components need to be added according to the ‘principles’. But if there is a situation where one online component is not enough to satisfy all the principles, then in order to satisfy the principles, more components are bound to be added, and after the new online components are added, students will definitely need to perform various different activities on different components, which is difficult and likely to cause confusion. This in turn is in some conflict with the author’s mention that ‘the key is to avoid at all costs simply adding activities and responsibilities until the course is completely unmanageable and students have no time to think about the meaning and engage in discussions to gain common understanding’ (Vaughan et al., 2013). So, in my opinion, these concepts that appear in the article are confusing and they are all in conflict with each other.

In the end, I would like to ask, do you think that blended learning will become the most mainstream way of teaching and learning? Is the blended learning approach equally applicable to early childhood education or job training?

 

Reference:

Vaughan, N. D., Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. AU Press. https://read.aupress.ca/read/teaching-in-blended-learning-environments/section/ac46044a-ecde-4fc4-846d-8c17fe8bf712