Aspects Of Blended Learning Technology Supports Diverse...

Aspects of Blended Learning: Technology Supports Diverse Classrooms Blended learning has been a popular topic in education over the past decade. With the rapid advancement of technology in recent years and the ever-increasing demands on teaching staff, there is a scramble to find the golden goose – the key to harmonizing technology and education in order to reach more students and ease the burden of teachers. It becomes more than just an issue of getting technology into the classroom because hundreds of thousands of classrooms already have technology capabilities. It becomes an issue of how to train teachers to use instructional technology and truly integrate it into curriculum. It becomes an issue of how to make technology a†¦show more content†¦Blended learning is malleable. It can easily be reformed and adjusted to suit many different learning styles and many different grade levels. For example, second graders may use reader software if they are struggling wi th dyslexia. Adults may use the same software if they are auditory learners to follow along when reading a long article on a computer screen. The hypothesis of this paper is that blended learning is a viable solution to stalling education methods because technology has the flexibility, real-world connection, and active engagement that supports successful learning. In this paper, there are four terms used interchangeably: technology, learning technology, educational technology, and instructional technology. While there is no universal definition for it, instructional technology can be defined as any tool used by an educator to support a lesson. There are two types of instructional technology: audiovisual devices and a systems approach process. (Gagne 1987, p. 11) Audiovisual devices include technical equipment, such as projectors and computers. A systems approach process means careful planning, development, execution, analyzation, and evaluation of instruction with technology. Most people still consider audiovisual devices to be the main component of educational technology, but the systems approach gives a more complete picture of the effort to create systematic instruction with technology. For the purposes