Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

31 – Looking Forward: Stories of Practice
Learning outcomes
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
• Connect content demands, student needs, and instructional
strategies.
• Select instructional strategies along a continuum of
potential practice.
• Envision a way in which the continuum of practice
can inform your work.
Introduction
In this chapter, we distinguish between online and
blended learning. The term “online” refers to teaching
and learning done totally at a distance, mediated via
electronic means (email, discussion boards, electronic
conferencing, etc.), while blended learning includes a
face-to-face component as well as distance learning,
usually with one component supporting the other, depending
on the emphasis.
In the K–12 or post-secondary educational environment,
these learning options enable students to complete
work that they would not otherwise be able to do.
Initially, this audience included students with extended
illnesses or disabilities who could complete course work
that they were otherwise unable to do, or rural students
who lacked access to courses required for postsecondary
schooling. Increasingly, this audience has
expanded to include students who are working towards
their personal learning goals, and need access to courses
content at their own pace.
In a corporate environment, training is often considered
an incentive, something that is available only to the
people who are already recognized as high performers.
This view tends to deny underperformers the opportunity
to reach their potential, although a commonly cited
benefit to training in general is that it tends to lead to
improved performance and satisfaction and a reduction
of staff turnover. Corporate online/blended learning
initiatives can make training available to everyone at
anytime and in any location.
Historically, online and blended learning is rooted in
distance and correspondence education from the mid-
1800s (Smith & Crichton, 2003)—much of it pioneered
in Canada and Australia. Given this long history, and
the variety of settings in which blended and online
learning are being used today, this chapter focuses on
the realities of creating educational environments in the
digital age, and the continuum upon which they can be
achieved.
This chapter suggests that online and blended learning,
as currently practised, fall along a continuum that ranges
from easily recognized teacher-directed instruction (passive,
correspondence-type materials) to learner-centred,
constructivist strategies (active, student-negotiated, experiential
projects). Educators, as never before, have a full
toolbox of instructional strategies, methods, and media at
their disposal. They only need awareness and opportunity
to make rich and meaningful choices for their students.
The definitions below set the context for this chapter
and serve as a starting point for building a common
understanding of the components that create learning
events and environments along the continuum.
Face-to-face learning
Face-to-face learning refers to traditional learning environments
whereby the learners and facilitators are colocated
for the same purpose and for a pre-determined
period of time. Workshops, seminars, courses and conferences
that have facilitators or instructors physically
present in the same room at the same time with participants
or students are examples of face-to-face delivery
models.
Online learning
The term online refers to teaching and learning done totally
at a distance, mediated through a range of electronic means
(email, discussion boards, electronic conferencing, etc.).
The Advisory Committee for Online Learning (2001) defines
online learning as “what occurs when education and
training are delivered and supported by networks such as
the Internet or intranets” (p. 1). This definition of online
learning highlights the flexible and dynamic nature of the
online environment, a characteristic that makes it possible
to engage in learning at anytime and from anyplace. Online
learning can take a variety of forms. Each of these forms
involves a combination of synchronous (real-time) and
asynchronous components and includes the following:
• Blended learning—Blended learning includes a faceto-face
component as well as an online component.
In blended learning, the face-to-face can support the
online or visa versa, depending on the emphasis
placed on the two options.
• Webcasts—These refer to the transmission of live
audio or video over the Internet. They are the Internet
equivalent to traditional radio and TV broadcasting
and can be used as stand-alone events that
participants register for or as a component of an online
course, conference, or session.
• Podcasting—This refers to the capture and storage of
digital audio files that can then be played back over
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