Week 2, Period 3

-Problem/ Introduction… 
    I am currently doing my LIO (Teacher in Training) at Deltion, a community college, in Zwolle. I teach English there to first (level 3) and second year students (level 4) in the sector 'commercial economy'. Each lesson is 45 minutes long. Furthermore, I give the first year students three lessons a week and the second year students four. 

    What I've noticed during my first weeks of teaching there is that students have their laptops open, but they are mostly using it to socialize on Facebook or they have their phones out to chat on WhatsApp. This phenomenon occurs quite frequently and I found myself saying 'put your phones away' and 'you won't need your laptop' too many times to recount. 

    Therefore, I thought instead of ignoring the new age use of technology within the classroom I should combine the face-to-face interaction (teacher+students) with online learning in order to maximize the activeness of the students during my English lessons. That is why I am researching how best to use blended learning with my specific classes for English and within Deltion.

-Goal:
My goal for this research is to find out how best to use blended learning to make my students engage more and for them to actively participate with their devices in a conscious and productive way. 

-Question:
How can I use blended learning to make Deltion students more active during English lessons?
Step 1: What is considered to be ‘(inter)active behavior ’ for students?
Step 2: What is blended learning?
Step 3: Current situation (Teachers, students, directors, ICT at Deltion)
Step 4: Testing with blended learning  (Creating blended learning lessons)
Step 5: Results (graphics, pie charts based on students' questionnaire answers) 

 -Literature:
1. http://www.uwlax.edu/catl/instructionaldesign/blended.html
2. http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-devices/blended-learning-improves-test-scores-study/d/d-id/1111129?
3. http://www.academia.edu/5028527/Empowering_Students_in_Blended_Learning
4. http://mashable.com/2011/01/03/virtual-classroom/
5. https://my.laureate.net/Faculty/docs/Faculty%20Documents/INTI%20Conferences/Parallel%20Sessions%204/4C/4C-06-P176%20%28Malaysia%29.pdf
6.  http://www.mindflash.com/elearning/what-is-blended-learning
7. https://academictech.doit.wisc.edu/blend/design/principles
8. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/blended-learning-getting-started-lisa-dabbs
(Research on it: http://www.ifets.info/journals/15_3/24.pdf)

Week 1, Period 3

Literature list:

Topic1: virtual classrooms +blended learning
1. http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/nov/13/human-interaction-distance-learning
2. http://mashable.com/2011/01/03/virtual-classroom/
3. http://www.edutopia.org/highschool-com
4. http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-devices/blended-learning-improves-test-scores-study/d/d-id/1111129?
5. http://www.kippla.org/empower/Our-Technology-Model2.cfm
Problem: Teachers do not use virtual classrooms or avoid using it to its fullest potential. At Deltion there is a free 'virtual classroom' called Fiducia, which allows teachers to instruct the students via an online lesson that gets posted on N@T school. However, teachers are unfamiliar or do not use this set-up at all.
I will collect data from students through questionnaires, interview teachers about their experience or lack thereof with blended learning, and lastly conduct lessons based on this method.
The value of this research is that teachers can use the data to decide whether they want to use blended learning in their classes or not as well as for them to opt to use the examples from my lessons.

Goal: To see whether 'virtual classrooms' and blended learning improves the learning environment at a community college (MBO Deltion).

Research question: Does blended learning improve the learning environment at Deltion?


Topic2: virtual worlds
1. http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/educational-frontiers-learning-virtual-world
2. https://www.hetl.org/feature-articles/real-learning-in-a-virtual-world/
3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821584/
4. http://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality-education/virtual-worlds.html

Notes: Learning a language in a virtual world such as 'Second Life' would be something interesting and new to do my research on. It would be fascinating to create lessons where all my students are logged in and we're in the virtual world together learning about presentations, vocabulary, tenses, etc.
Problem: I wonder if this is doable for MBO students (time+ material constraints) and what my department would think about this concept.