Page 10 - BLENDED LEARNING

Preface

Claire Whittaker

When I took up the post of Training and Systems Manager with the British Council in
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2003, little did I know that it would result in the proposal
for this publication, or better still that the proposal would be accepted. The rest, as
they say, is history. Prior to this post my experience of using computers in English
Language Teaching (ELT) had been somewhat limited. I had first used them as a
teacher in 1997 when I had access to a computer room with an internet connection
and a limited number of CD-ROMs. I used them for extension activities to complement
my face-to-face sessions by providing the students with additional controlled practice
of the grammar or vocabulary that had just been presented.
This experience piqued my interest in using computers for language teaching and
learning and so I read articles and books on computer-assisted language learning
(CALL) in an attempt to find practical suggestions for their successful integration and
usage. I also attended courses on information and communications technology (ICT)
in ELT, as it was then referred to, in my quest for knowledge. This interest and limited
amount of experience and knowledge did not, however, adequately prepare me for
my role as Training and Systems Manager in which I ‘inherited’ a blended learning
course that was being used to teach English to military personnel in the armed
forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was also the first time that I had heard the
term ‘blended learning’ and I have to say, initially, I was sceptical about its longevity;
how wrong I was.

One of my first tasks in the role was to carry out a study into delivery of the English
language in the 13 geographically spread language centres, to become familiar with
their working practices. This highlighted the numerous significant inconsistencies
in the language delivery between them, for example the length of courses, the
timetables and syllabi. I felt that we needed to standardise the language delivery,
not only to be able to manage the system more effectively, but also to provide each
student with comparable learning opportunities. At this stage I was unconcerned
by the fact that these courses employed a blended learning approach rather than a
traditional face-to-face approach. Nor did I realise what it entailed or appreciate its
potential. My outlook was soon to change though, once I began to understand the
complexities of designing, or in my case redesigning, a blended learning course.
Only once the course content and length had been standardised did I begin to
question the blend itself and to consider the design, not only at lesson level but also
at course level, for the first time. Unwittingly this resulted in what was to become
a three-year iterative redesign process. Throughout this time I continued to read
articles and books on what was now largely being termed blended learning, but
was frustrated by the lack of advice on the principles and practicalities of blended
learning course design (above lesson level) and descriptions or studies of blends in
ELT contexts.

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