Designing blended learning experiences: the role of the teacher in the New European Bauhaus

Form Follows Function

Digital technology has the potential to reimagine our education systems in the spirit of the New European Bauhaus by better preparing our students for a world in which digital technology will play an increasing role. At the same time, it can help to address current and future challenges, particularly those posed by climate change. While many European schools made significant use of digital technology prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it often played a peripheral role for many others. Teachers’ Technological Knowledge (TK), their knowledge and critical understanding of digital technologies, both in their professional and personal lives, has certainly increased over the past two years.

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Many teachers and students struggled to engage in education during the pandemic due to low digital competence levels, low access to digital technology (including reliable Internet) and lack of suitable learning spaces. However, there were also reports of students experiencing more inclusive forms of education, where they were more actively engaged with curriculum content, their teachers and their peers. Others enjoyed the flexibility of new approaches where they could learn at a time, pace and place of their choosing and regulate their own learning. While COVID-19 spawned new forms of teaching, learning and assessment practices, it was ultimately creative teachers who designed and implemented educational experiences for their students.

Blended Learning the Future

COVID-19 caused people to fundamentally rethink what education was for and how it might be supported in the future. People are beginning to question what perspectives and practices to retain and develop, alongside existing approaches. This new combination results in a process that is often described as blended learning. There is a growing recognition that blended learning approaches should come to the fore once schools fully reopen. Blended learning is a contested term, with multiple definitions, but the Council of the European Union has adopted a recommendation that defines blended learning as:

… a school (in primary and secondary education, including vocational education and training), teacher and trainer or learner taking more than one approach to the learning process:

• blending school site and other physical environments away from the school site (either with the presence of a teacher/trainer, or separated by space and/or time in distance learning);
• blending different learning tools that can be digital (including online learning) and non-digital

In launching the recommendation, the Slovenian Minister of Education, Science and Sport urged everyone “to explore how blending different teaching environments as well as learning tools such as face-to-face and digital learning can make our education [systems] better equipped for the future”. This a call to action for all teachers.

The Importance of Teacher Creativity

Teachers now have a wonderful opportunity to apply their newly developed Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) to create blended learning experiences for their students. Teachers and society are more fully aware of the key role digital technologies play in our lives and the need for everyone, particularly young people, to develop their technological literacy so that they can be effective citizens. In designing blended learning experiences, we need to equip students with the critical thinking skills to understand digital safety and to read digital media, and with the technological skills to work in existing or emerging digital spheres, including the AI and data industries. To achieve this, we need to provide support to ALL teachers so they can bring their insights from teaching during the pandemic to the design of new approaches..

Michael Hallissy is an independent researcher and founder of H2 Learning.