Building a Digital Village

As I back-pedal to catch up on all my reading and writing, I find it easy to get engrossed in the number of articles related to instructional technology in education. Though my interest is sparked by many readings, David Nagel’s article in THE Journal, Meta-Analysis: Is Blended Learning Most Effective? is of special interest to me, as I have been a proponent of blended learning initiatives for our staff and our students. Though my desire is for every teacher and student to be engaged in online learning activities, I truly believe there is a transitional period where the best method is that of a blended or hybrid approach, providing face to face instruction with periods of online learning in between. The findings in the report referenced in his article “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning”, found that online learning, either completely online or blended, on average produce stronger student learning outcomes than face to face instruction. I think it is imperative that we continue with this initiative in an effort to move education ahead with integrated instructional technology initiatives.