The Promise of Blended Learning
Most elementary-school experiences look pretty similar. They involve one classroom, one teacher, one yellow school bus, one set of textbooks, and one method of instruction for 30 fantastically unique children. This bedrock system of American education stayed in place, with only small modifications, throughout most of the 20th century because it was the best schools could do with the technology available.
Today, the world is changing. We use technology to connect with each other and live out our daily lives in ways that were simply unimaginable even 15 years ago. Business, health care, entertainment, and countless other sectors of our society have undergone revolutionary digital change since today's adults were children -- and yet if an American adult were to walk into a primary-school classroom today, they’d likely find it sadly familiar.
If America is to continue to lead the world throughout the 21st century, it must adapt its education system to fit the modern world. And closer to home, children deserve an educational experience tailored to their unique learning needs, and parents ought to have greater power to shape their children’s educational path.
One solution to our country’s stagnant education system is blended learning, which harnesses the advantages and innovations of modern technology and fuses them with a traditional classroom setting to optimize each child’s learning experience. This system maintains the vital teacher/student face-to-face interaction that is missing from purely virtual schools, but reinvigorates the century-old chalkboard model by introducing self-guided online learning to the classroom.
Through blended learning, teachers and technology work together to help students master content at a pace that fits their learning abilities and needs. When computers shoulder some of the burden of instruction -- for example, when children interact with a digital learning module at their own speed instead of sitting through a traditional lecture -- teachers have more time to work with students one-on-one or in small groups. This allows a teacher to provide levels of support and personalized instruction that would simply be infeasible otherwise.
When teachers have the time to teach to the individual instead of the median, students can exert greater control over the path and pace of their learning, increasing their level of engagement with the material. In a blended-learning system, square pegs no longer need to worry about fitting into one-size-fits-all round holes. Online learning can also afford children greater opportunities to work in groups with their peers, creating a more social and interactive educational experience.
Online learning will help shape the future of America’s educational system -- in fact, 50 percent of all post-secondary students will take at least one virtual course next year -- yet many teachers and policymakers are hesitant to embrace it, because the benefits of face-to-face learning can’t be recreated online. Blended learning captures the very best elements of both forms of instruction, and the product is a highly personalized, student-centric system that fits today’s fast-paced world.
We’re not driving the same cars we did 50 years ago, and we wouldn’t think of taking our children to a doctor who hadn’t updated his practice since Watergate. It’s time that we applied the same mentality to education, and created a forward-thinking system that prepares our children for the world they’ll inherit.
Erik Telford is senior vice president of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
