Here - EnglishAgenda - British Council

(as is the popular demand) must now be addressed in a different way – throughfeatures like the online quiz facilities. It is still a difficult task though to persuadesome that in fact it would be more productive for them to make the quiz themselves,so much ends up duplicated (the course provider supplied version and the versionsparticipants go on to make themselves once they see the benefit).Trainees (and tutors) have very different relationships with and awareness oftechnology. Some cope well with exploring on their own and have a natural instinctto try and forge their own path through the course. Others want considerably moresupport and to be told what to do and in what order. Over time we have put more andmore in place to support people as they get started, to show them how they mightstart. Despite this there are still those who fall by the wayside and see the technologyas the cause. Emails come in saying ‘I’ve never done an online course before andI’m feeling very lost’, where in fact the difficulties of getting started with the proactiveapproach that would make them most successful are about time management,self awareness and research skills and have always been needed (and have alwaysbeen a challenge for some). Lack of familiarity with the technology makes it an easyscapegoat, but it may also be an additional obstacle to be overcome. The more weadd, the more time is required to work through things that are actually only in placeto ensure people are equipped with the study skills they may need to deal with thecourse. ‘Perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a personlearns only the particular thing he is studying at the time.’ (Dewey1998: 49). Someparticipants make the meta-leap and realise that they have also been covertly shownhow they could deliver some or all of the language learning process to their studentsin a blended format.Issues for the futureOur aim is to deliver a training course that promotes participant interaction and selfresponsibility and in which tasks are optional. The premise behind the approach issupported by sociocultural theory (Vygotsky 1978, 1986) which sees learning (andlanguage) as a social process. Put simply, language use is shaped by what kind ofactivity we are doing and who we are doing it with (Halliday, 1993), and for Vygotskyand socio-constructivists, such language use with others is the essential mediatingtool in our cognitive development. However, in a blended programme, as well asin a face-to-face format, there are participants who prefer information deliveredin a transmission mode rather than a more participant-centred ‘learning throughdiscussion’ style. The very flexible nature of the formats and the ability to keepadding things in response to feedback and in response to how the course is usedmeans we are more able to deliver more options and a greater variety of learningexperiences in a way that was not feasible in the purely face to face version ofthe course.Creating a blended Delta Module One | 107