Ανοικτή Εκπαίδευση: το περιοδικό για την Ανοικτή και εξ Αποστάσεως Εκπαίδευση και την Εκπαιδευτική Τεχνολογία

This paper is a review of literature and current information related to blended learning. It will deal with several primary research issues which will include the redefining of the role of student, the role of teacher/tutor, learning and the educational establishment. The paper will analyse and discuss the selection of strategies to increase interactivity and active learning, learner characteristics, learner support and operational issues. Introduction Every educational establishment and every learner/student in order to develop and improve should be able to adapt in the environment. In order to succeed in that in a way that will give results has to pick up a dynamic and flexible procedure in learning towards knowledge and skills in order to meet society’s changes. In parallel, the industrial society is developing so rapidly into the society of information. The introduction of information but also the telecommunication technologies, the high need and constant deployment of competition in the market but also the multiplication of professional skills consist a very important role in the lifelong learning of professionals. Lifelong learning of professionals has as a target the continuous improvement of knowledge and skills. The classic approach in education shows a number of problems for both educational establishments and learners. Such problems can be the mobility of the learners, the waste of time that could be devoted to learning, the high direct and indirect cost is caused by the expenses of travelling and mainly the inability of the learner to accommodate his personal needs because they need to be informed at all times of the advancements around their profession. For these reasons the last years there is a new approach developed that seems to give some solutions in the above problems. This approach is based on the development of new technologies and more particularly bringing into play the use of multimedia and telecommunications. With regards to what technology is offering nowadays there has been a wide growth in educational approaches and there has been an adaptation of new educational standards that are based on educating with the use of educational applications through a computer and on the distance education approach. The use of a computer in education changes considerably the way in which education was conducted. The introduction of new educational material to the learners to gain a more knowledge and comprehend knowledge when and where they can. The communication between the learner and the computer creates appropriate ground for the active participation of the learner in learning. The learner stops being a viewer only in the educational process and participates with his/her own level of knowledge improving and increasing his/her experiences and understanding. With the use of educational applications via a computer there is the option for the learners to be educated in their own pace, in their own environment and in many situations there is the possibility of adjusting the applications on their own needs. Additionally, technologies about distance education allow to the learners to observe teaching in places where they are far away from where they live. Hence, some examples the learner can have to support them in http://epublishing.ekt. gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 08/03/2021 08:37:07 | their studies can be the World Wide Web, White Boarding, E-Mail, Point to Point Conferencing Audio and Video, Video Conferencing, Audio Conferencing etc. Nevertheless, because of this inactivity in the change of the traditional model of education with the existence of the tutor in a classroom, where the learner doesn’t have to go in the educational establishment, it has been caused a big delay in the spread of this style of teaching and learning and at the same time it didn’t succeed in its prospective results. Therefore, it has been adopted a new model of education that combines the advantages of both ways of teaching – traditional teaching and distance learning with the use of technologies – and at the same time crosses out the weaknesses of those ways/styles. This model is named Blended Learning. It basically rounds up the best teaching styles with the best technologies in order to transfer knowledge the time that the learner needs it. As such, in this document I will discuss and analyse how the curriculum in Higher Education has changed and how this new model of teaching and learning – blended learning – can support the new needs of Higher Education. Additionally, it will conclude on how information and blended learning in more general can be used as a tool for democratic skills. But the question here is why to refer to democracy when discussing about the curriculum and what it the link between the two. Referring to Carr’s (1998) paper is obvious that the curriculum for democracy will assist society to develop in the democratic side. The primary aim of a democratic education is to develop in pupils the habit of intelligence, the habit of confronting and resolving problems through reflective enquiry, collective deliberation and rational debate (Carr, 1998). As such, schools need to provide a democratic culture. The curriculum in any contemporary democratic society always reflects the definition of democracy which the society has accepted as legitimate and true. The needs for transforming Higher Education Hooker (1997) claimed that “Higher Education is on the brick of a revolution”. Even in 1995 Zemsky (in Hooker, 1997) stated that higher education’s core values will be at risk if a larger share of the market for undergraduate education is secured by non traditional providers. Education is not a service for a customer but an ongoing process of transformation of the participant (Harvey 2002, in D’Andrea & Gosling, 2005). As more students enter Higher Education than ever before traditional forms of teaching are under increasing pressure to change. There is a change between the relationship of governments and Higher Education institutions and the stakeholder interaction play an important role. All around the world governments work towards including the use of IC|T in their curriculum from primary school to Higher Education (Tondeur & Valcke, 2007). National policies identify ICT literacy as a set of competencies needed to participate in society. The findings of the eEurope 2002 committee are that all school leavers must be digitally literate in order to be prepared for a knowledge based economy (Commission of the European Communities, 2000). National government is setting goals for national Higher Education making strategic decisions and several national documents in many countries try to introduce and include ICT as a separate school subject to teach pupils a number of technical ICT skills with the view to prepare them for further studies. Such reports are the School of Education Action plan for the Information Society (EdNA School Advisory Group, 2001), the National Educational Technology Plan (US Department of Education, 2004), the Qualification and Curriculum Authority/Department for Education and Employment (1999) and the Alberta Learning (2000). http://epublishing.ekt. gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 08/03/2021 08:37:07 | The Curriculum What is curriculum? As with most things in education, there is no agreed definition of ‘curriculum’, although it is generally agreed that ‘curriculum’ is not the same as ‘syllabus’. A syllabus is a statement of topics to be studied in the course. A ‘curriculum’ equally is not just a statement of intended outcomes, products, or competencies. A competent doctor, however, is one who recognises and works within the limits of their professional competence (GMC, 2006). Curriculum is much more than either of these. Theorists concern themselves with different types of curriculum (Coles and Gale, 1985). The curriculum on paper can be the statement of purpose, aims, content, experiences, materials etc. The curriculum in action is the way in which the curriculum in paper is put into practice. The curriculum learners experience is what learners do, how they study, what they believe they should be doing etc. Finally, the hidden curriculum (Snyder, 1971) includes the behaviours, knowledge and performances that the learner infers to be important. In 1997 Hooker stated that “Higher education is on the brink of a revolution”. It is true that educational institutions are microcosms of culture and the society that supports them. If the slogan in the 19 century was “education for those who don’t know and don’t have”, if the slogan in the 20 century was “even more education for those who don’t know and don’t have” then in the 21 century the slogan should be “education needs to be accessible and offer more quality” (Lionarakis, 2001). Bridges (2000) has also observed the radically changing nature of higher education in the last 20 years of the twentieth century. These changes are significant, not just because they provide a changing context for the higher education curriculum, but because in the broader sense of the term, which includes all that is learned by the students, not merely that which is planned by their teachers, they change the curriculum itself. Bridges (2000) examined the boundaries that gave the definition to the university and to students’ experiences. These are the identity of time, the identity of place, the identity of the scholarly community and the identity of the student community. I will first look at these and then examine why these identities have changed nowadays. The identity of time The idea of a tightly contained academic year of intense interaction broken by long periods of separation, or even of a day in which teaching was largely confined to a period between 9.00 and 5.00, has been broken by demands for part-time evening courses, short courses, day seminars at the weekend and summer schools as well as the need in, for example, healthrelated subjects (Bridges