One of the key reasons for blended learning to be vastly supported is to cut down on the expenses needed for traditional teaching material; which can be diverted into teacher’s salaries which will entice teachers to stay and disregard the idea of transferring to other states.
The concept of blended learning operates with the incorporation of technology into traditional teaching. It combines online education with the traditional class-based method.
This method of teaching allows teacher and student interaction both physically and virtually without sacrificing the exchange of knowledge between the two. It consists of two methods, the physical meetings, and online learning.
Physical meetings are used to demonstrate, perform hands-on learning and physical activities by the teacher. This is very important to show the students how their online learning applies to actual situations.
The second aspect is online learning. Here, learning materials are delivered online to follow up the students on additional information on their subject matter. Online learning is very efficient because of the vast information students can get via the internet.
Bold move by Oklahoma to try blended learning
Just this year, the state of Oklahoma approved (500) emergency teaching certificates just to respond to teacher shortages. Any interested individual just needs to have a bachelor’s degree to acquire a teaching certification.
This was a very bold move by Oklahoma to temporarily solve the need for school teachers. On some states other than Oklahoma, they have utilized principals, assistant principals, and even their librarians to fill in as temporary teachers until replacement teachers are to be deployed. Some districts even resorted into hiring uncertified and unqualified applicants to fill-in as teachers in their respective areas.
Teacher shortages from almost every state in the country are getting worse. Statistics show that the numbers of teacher shortages in different states are drastically increasing and in dire need of immediate action.
Every start of the school year possesses a new problem when it comes to the teacher to student ratio in a lot of major states around the country. The struggle to fill in teachers has resulted in rushed decisions to cope up with the problem.
Some schools are even hiring teachers with no teaching experience in hopes of acquiring those on their own in the course of their teaching stint.
These desperate risks being taken can be successful but also be a failure; it will all depend on the supporting guidance exerted on these probationary educators by their seniors on the field. This is where the idea of blended learning came upon.
