Online learning is not the next big thing, it is the now big thing.”
Roosty Tovar
This study aims to establish the effectiveness of the use of blended learning technology, its impact on the success of education applicants, and the quality of education in general. We can see that technology and education go hand in hand, day by day more devices, applications and tools are developed, which allow students a combined, effective and interactive learning. It is understood how to apply information technology to solve and improve education techniques. Educational technology is "the pedagogical intellectual space whose object of study is the media and information and communication technologies, as forms of representation, dissemination and access to knowledge and culture in different educational contexts.
The definition of digital technology includes all electronic tools, automatic systems, devices, and technological resources that generate, process, or store information.
Thanks to it, we can compress large amounts of information into small storage devices that can be easily stored and transported with a tablet, laptop, etc.
In the 21st century, education will continue to transform lives and generate change in all areas. Technology will not replace educational work as such; it will simply make it more effective in meeting the needs of citizens of the 21st century.
The diversity of students which we currently live with leads us to consider innovative educational practices that involve the multiple intelligences that are usually concentrated in a classroom. The learning stations or Station Rotation, are a teaching-learning strategy that arises from teachers' concern that traditional teaching models are based on the sole transmission of information from the teacher to the class, which feeds competition over cooperation and favors only “average” students. On the other hand, learning in stations promotes teamwork and collaboration around a certain topic that is developed through different activities which are distributed in different workstations. The teacher is no longer a transmitter of information, they're a guide for the different activities that the student has to carry out according to their possibilities, tastes and interests. These activities are carried out individually, in pairs, or in groups, as stipulated. There is a common theme for all stations, which is approached differently in each one.
Learning stations or Rotation Stations constitute an ideal strategy to promote educational inclusion within the classroom. Students work at their own pace, in centers of interest reinforcing the theme in various ways. Teamwork promotes companionship and cooperation. The teacher is a guide and the students are the autonomous protagonist of their learning. The learning stations are the ideal tool to instruct in a varied way taking into account the different abilities of each student, it allows us to maintain an adequate climate for learning by keeping students motivated through rotation in different activities.
Portrayed in the Innovation Proposal, the broad benefits for the student population in simultaneous bidirectional Dual Language through this presentation are to strengthen rotation models or learning stations, emphasize modalities and combined tasks, high levels of bilingualism and literacy in both languages (listening, speaking, reading and writing); in the same way that it increases creativity and problem-solving skills, having a positive effect on intellectual development, improve overall academic performance and promote better performance in the work in the rotation stations (Castejon, Honduras, 2005), the development of learning through the following fundamental contributions: transformation of the physical space through the creation of a new and motivating space within the classroom that creates the development of self-study materials. In the same way, the student develops their own knowledge through their work. There is freedom for everyone to work at their own pace, and to express themselves in the way they feel comfortable with.
Blended Learning is precisely a mixed teaching experience in which the study takes place inside and outside the classroom and in which digital media is used to support the student. This allows a greater flexibility than in traditional methods, as well as greater involvement (active participation) of the students.
Within the Blended Learning options there are different configurations that work better in some scenarios or in others. Blended Learning has emerged as a new significant educational trend. Blended Learning has been defined to differentiate this modality of teaching and learning from the traditional way or online. By way of illustration, Bonk and Graham (2012) defined Blended Learning as the combination of traditional face-to-face instruction with computer-assisted instruction. Significantly, Blended Learning can be used in lieu of traditional or online learning, as it promotes a greater sense of engagement than traditional face-to-face or fully online teaching and learning methods (Tayebinik & Puteh, 2013). That is, blended learning allows for more learning opportunities that motivate students to participate inside and outside the classroom environment (Senffner and Kepler, (2015).
From the above, it is worth asking, how do you get to blended learning? For some researchers such as Vaughan (2003) and Valiathan (2002), Blended Learning arises from the deficiencies of e-learning, which according to Bartolome (2006), can be studied from two perspectives: the difficulties generated by the underlying model that does not satisfy the initial expectations of the students and the defects generated by the dominant economism in many projects. On the other hand, Bersin (2004) points out that Blended Learning is the last step in a long history of technology-based education, and Thorne (2003) describes that Blended Learning is the most logical and natural evolution of our learning program. It seems that Blended Learning is the integration that allows the concept of the classroom to acquire a new context. But it is necessary that this new context be suitable for teaching and learning. If it's not clear why use Blended Learning? and how to use Blended Learning? Surely the claims of researchers that Blended Learning is presented as an option with a large number of positive assessments in educational practice will not be met. (Bonk and Graham, 2006) In this way, the following stand out among the positive assessments of Blended Learning: (a) Blended Learning offers high satisfaction on the part of the students, especially in the flexibility of space and time as well as the greater accessibility to the materials of their courses (Johnson, 2002; Burgon and Williams, 2003; Ausburn, 2004; Dziuban, Hartman, and Moskal, 2004), (b) Blended Learning increases the proposals for active methodologies (Christensen, 2003 and Vignare, 2005), (c ) Blended Learning allows for greater interaction between participants, both student-student and student-teacher (Burgon & Williams, 2003 and Garrison & Kanuka, 2004), (d) Blended Learning provides greater potential to develop critical thinking skills (McSporran & King , 2005; Garrison and Vaughan, 2008; Dziuban, s.f.), (e) Blended Learning enhances the development of metacognitive skills such as self-regulation and personal autonomy (Osguthorpe and Gram, 2003; Lynch and Dembo, 2004; Bartolomé and Aiello, 2006), (f) Blended Learning makes it possible to offer learning experiences drawing closer to the real world (Spilka, 2002), (g) Blended Learning enhances the ability to offer a greater variety of resources and thus be able to provide more appropriate didactic responses to the diversity of students' cognitive styles (Schweizer, Paechter and Weidermann, 2003) and (h) Blended Learning is more effective than exclusively face-to-face teaching and additionally students like it more (Witt & Kerres, 2003).
Today teachers have the opportunity to enhance student growth and development through online personalized learning resources. Seeking that students become active learners, with a growth mindset through participation, initiative and interest. Active learning increases understanding and interaction because students are involved in the learning process. All this can be possible by creating a blended learning environment in the spaces. Due to the above, it leads to proposing the expansion of the use of blended learning in the classroom while incorporating a dual two-way language program.
The benefits of blended learning in elementary school, boosting student achievement through purpose, engagement, and personalization. Students will be able to work on the gaps they have in an online syllabus and work at their own pace. Teachers will then be able to use the data to help further guide their instruction to fill in the gaps faster. “Blended learning offers a vehicle to streamline instructional design toward personalization through transparent data dashboards and a personalized learning map to improve a student's pathway choice” (Patrick, Kennedy, & Powell, 2013). The first thing that would be applied to improve the best path for the student would be the implementation of tests to determine what level the student is at and what gaps could be covered.
Conclusion
Blended learning combines the power of technology with the guidance and experience of good teachers. It is suggested to be strategic, decisive and deliberate when implementing blended learning, in order to obtain the results that you want to achieve when implementing this method. The K-12 Horizon report notes that blended learning environments serve two purposes (2017). When focusing on the station rotation model of blended learning for the elementary classroom, students will rotate through stations with one consisting of technology. Students will participate in self-directed learning in order to meet their individual needs, whether it is through an Individual Education Plan, regular education, gifted and talented, or English Language Learners. That is to say: divide it into different parts so that the student can work on them individually or in groups. Learning strategies not only train the ability to learn and solve problems, but this in itself implies the intellectual development of the student, the potential of their abilities, understanding these as flexible structures and susceptible to being modified and increased. Didactic strategies determine the way to carry out a didactic process, providing clarity on how the development of actions is guided to achieve the objectives. Blended Learning will better prepare them for a rapidly changing global world of technology.
References
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