REYES, Robby L.

Speech 183
2010-13981 Essay #1

In the advent of technology in our society, and the continuous integration of most of the life
processes with technology, education and learning try to keep up. With a lot of technology and
gadgets invented and advancement discovered on the teaching process, communication and
information transfer, it is not impossible for the sector of education to go beyond the traditional.
And it is in this idea that the concept of blended learning takes its form. Blended learning is an
approach in teaching that relies on the mixture of traditional face-to-face and web-based learning
environments. In most of the universities, even in high schools actually, this approach of learning
and teaching is already implemented and being adapted.
The usual reason is because of the utilization of the technology that is now currently available to
almost everyone. Because the current generation of students are digital natives, meaning they are
the ones who are born during the rise and the propagation of technological advancements, they
are able to easily adjust, adapt, learn and maximize these technologies. But according to the
readings, integration of technology to the traditional is quite effective in terms of students
comprehension and understanding.
According to the reading Blending Face-To-Face Higher Education with Web-Based Lectures:
Comparing Different Didactical Application Scenarios by Montriuex, Vangestel, Raes, Matthys,
and Schellens, there should be more compelling reason as to why we should integrate face-to-
face and web-based learning and this is to be able to provide appropriate teaching and learning
activities and platform to reach the specific pedagogical purposes of the course. And according
again to the reading, that I find very on-point, spot on and sensible, for the integration of the
web-based and the face-to-face learning approach, the pedagogical purpose is can be seen in
three possible ways: (1) web-based lectures in video form as a means of preparation for the face-
to-face practical exercises (known as flipped classroom in Blended Learning: A Flipped
Classroom Experiment by Slomanson), (2) web-based lectures as means of repetition of parts,
commonly hard to understand lessons, of the course during the face-to-face lectures, and (3)
web-based lectures as a means of extension, in form of exercise, activities, problem, to
supplement face-to-face classroom lectures.
Personally, I have experienced this approach in teaching where in online and traditional are
mixed together in order to achieve a different kind or state of earning and comprehension. I have
also experienced this mixture of face-to-face and web-based teaching with its different purposes.
For the purpose of preparation to the lecture class, I experienced it in CE 10 (Disaster Risk
Preparedness and Mitigation) class were in we were given online readings, materials, videos and
PowerPoint presentations to study days before the lecture in order for the lecturer to just breeze
through the topics because of the bulk of the content the lecturer will talk about. We were also
given exams and quizzes after reading before the lecture to see if we actually read the materials.
For the purpose of repetition of the hard to comprehend lessons, concepts and information, I
experienced this in my Comm 130 (Media Theories). Because the concepts, definitions and
examples of the media theories and its applications are a bit confusing especially to freshmen or
those who are new to the field, there is a necessity to have repetition on the topic and the lesson
in order for us to get used to the concept and for us to be able to store it in our memory. Thus, my
professor, after the face-to-face discussion in class, she will post her PowerPoint in our UVLe
group together with additional materials and readings for us as refresher.
For the purpose of extension to supplement the classroom face-to-face lectures, I experienced it
in my Engineering subjects, all Math, Chemistry, Physics, and MatE subjects that I took back
when I was still an Engineering student, all of my professors are used to sending online copies of
their PowerPoint, together with a new PowerPoint containing sample problems and probsets that
we were asked to answer as exercise and submit the next meeting. This is in order for us to
practice solving, applying the formulas and the concepts, and to get the hang of it.
Because of the reading, I was able to appreciate now the integration of both the traditional and
the online approach in teaching. And I must say to give credit to whom this idea of merging face-
to-face and web-based teaching came from, this approach truly helped me as a student in deeper
comprehension and further understanding of the lessons on my own time, pace and convenience.
What I liked the most about this approach is that we were given a somewhat another chance to
go back to the lecture, study again the parts of the lesson that the students sometimes, most of the
time always, miss because of the very fast paced lectures of the professor. Truly, education and
learning, and teaching as well, had been revolutionized greatly by the technology we had, and it
is quite fascinating to ponder on how education can go even further and can be improved way
better once our technology progresses even more.

References:

Hannelore Montriuex, S. V. (2015). Blending Face-To-Face Higher Education with Web-Based

Lectures: Comparing Different Didactical Application Scenarios. Educational
Technology & Society, 170-182.
Slomanson, W. (2014). Blended Learning: A Flipped Classroom Experiment. Journal of Legal
Education, 93-102.