These sliodes are from my keynote presentation at a Finnish national conference on Blended Learning, SULOP2013.

1. ”Blended Learning” and Time
Anders Norberg
Education Strategist, Campus Skellefteå
PhD Student, Applied Educational Science, Umeå University
Sweden

2. Disposition
• Small-talk, my context of the talk
• ”Blendedness” of learning
• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending
• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift
– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”
• Wrap up + questions

3. Education ”distribution” forms
1. Campus education F2F
2. Decentralised education
3. Real time videoconference
ed.
4. Web based asynchronous ed.
(no times, no places)
1,1
…and mixtures, blends,
million
hybrids
Categorisation built on
”distance” from a central
university campus?
..longer distance, more
8,3 technology, lower
million status, unclearer quality
Is there a new education
logistics around the
corner, with a new
normality of education
access?

5. • Teaching space?
Gap?
• Learning space?
• Teaching time?
Gap? Scene from Swedish movie, ”Hets” 1944, by
Alf Sjöberg and Ingmar Bergman
• Learning time?
…and how to blend it?

6. Disposition
• Small-talk, my context of the talk
• ”Blendedness” of learning
• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending
• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift
– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”
• Wrap up + questions

7. Common definition of blended
learning
• “Blended learning systems combine face-to-
face instruction with computer-mediated
instruction. Blended learning is part of the
ongoing convergence of two archetypal
learning environments. On the one hand, we
have the traditional face-to-face learning
environment that has been around for
centuries. On the other hand, we have
distributed learning environments …”
(C. Graham, 2006).

8. Is blended learning like a
boy named Sue?
A category mistake? Can An evil naming –
learning conceptually be or by mistake?
blended?
But people seem to A name that
understand it? nobody loves?
Provides good growth Carries something
conditions for something promising?
”becoming”?
“…the advantages of the term
include its poor definition - which
allows staff to negotiate their own
meaning”
…the same has not been the case with
”didactics”

9. Simple working definition of BL:
• Ongoing integration of new technology-
enhanced teaching/learning with mainstream
education practices

10. John Daniel
Commonwealth of
Learning

12. Disposition
• Small-talk, my context of the talk
• ”Blendedness” of learning
• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending
• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift
– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”
• Wrap up + questions

14. Education logistics:
1. Campus education F2F
2. Decentralised education
3. Real time videoconference
ed.
4. Web based asynchronous ed.
(no times, no places)
1,1
…and mixtures, blends,
million
hybrids
Categorisation built on
”distance” from a central
university campus?
..longer distance, more
8,3 technology, lower status,
million unclearer quality
Is there a new education
logistics around the corner,
with a new normality of
education access?

15. Place language?
• ”Distance learning”,
• ”decentralised education”,
• ”education distribution”,
• ”remote students”,
• ”mobile learning” etc
…reflect now old limitations of teaching and
learning as half-physical place-bound
processes, not limitations of learning itself

16. Peter Tillberg, 1971, ”Blir du lönsam lille vän?”

17. Content-focused?
Static?
Ad hoc
Bolt-on
A course and a half

18. Marshall Mcluhan on Media
• "New media may at first appear as mere codes
of transmission for older achievement and
established patterns of thought.”
• ”We shape our tools, then they shape us.”
• "The new media are not bridges between man
and nature; they are nature."

19. F2F /Classroom Online world
Delivering the
content
where?
How to blend
places?

20. …but we can perhaps get beyond this, on another
track
By Vaikoovery (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

21. Disposition
• Small-talk, my context of the talk
• ”Blendedness” of learning
• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending
• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift
– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”
• Wrap up + questions

22. Luciano Floridi on Digital Dualism
• “…we are probably the last generation to experience
a clear difference between offline and online.”
• “…we are constructing the new environment that will
be inhabited by future generations.”
• “As a consequence of such re-ontologization of our
ordinary environment, we shall be living in an
infosphere that will become increasingly
synchronized (time), delocalised (space) and
correlated (interactions).”
• “…it is now actually happening in our kitchen.”
• (All quotes from http://aminotes.tumblr.com/post/5980255524/luciano-floridi-on-the-future-development-of-the )

23. The learner
is always here and now
when he learns
Like Descartes:
Cogito, ergo sum
Sum res cogitans

24. ”Well, this was my introduction lecture to the
course. Until next time we meet, read texts X
and Y do assignment Z – why not meet with
some friends, perhaps in the library and work
together. Begin in time to read the course
literature – there is much to study before the
exam in the end of next month.” (a lot of time
perspectives?)

25. ”I know what time is – until somebody asks me” St Augustine
Teaching time? Learning time?
Einstein - Minkowski
Time as a cornerstone of the Time as subjective and relative –
industrial age – objective, self- all have their own time,
evident, nothing to doubt…? If You dependent on development
want something done, schedule it! movement, etc
The now is a product of the past The now is all there is – but it
and a start of the coming contains a presence of the past
and future

26. Is it all about time?
• If most students can learn anything given
enough time and help…
• …then it can be the course concept itself, with
its fixed time, that makes some students
successful and other fail
• …but it was worse earlier in history

27. +
Oral transmission from classic
sources Book printing
=
Blended learning,
1.0?

28. Blended learning 1.0, what
happened?
In a short perspective?
Education revolution?
Hype?
More learning?
Teacher role changes?
Teachers worried about their jobs?
And in the longer perspective?
We often Spreading of ideas easier
overestimate effects
in the shorter Monopoly of Catholic church ceases
perspective, and Modern science step by step
underestimate effects
in the longer Mass media, democracy, freedom of
perspective? speech
Knowledge society

29. Disposition
• Small-talk, my context of the talk
• ”Blendedness” of learning
• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending
• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift
– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”
• Wrap up + questions

31. TIME SHIFTING?

32. The shift
between synchronous and
asynchronous elements
in a course
is a key
to the understanding
and planning
of blended learning

33. Very trivial?
In a course we meet
regularly and do
work on our own in
between meetings

34. Graphic from Norberg, Dziuban, Moskal (2011) A Time Based Blended Learning Model, Emerald, On the Horizon Journal 19:3, by permission

35. Meetings and non-meetings…so what
when adding IT?
3) We
5) We connect
move
easier activites
activities
here
from here 4) We replace some room
meetings with other synchronous
forms of meetings
2) More possibilities to
1) We support
do things
and organise
asynchronously with IT
this work
better with IT With
(LMS etc) activities
here
to here

37. Michael Power, Blended Online Learning – http://www.bold-research.org

38. Time shift mechanisms?
• The learning magic is in the transition?
• Combining synchronous and asynchronous
events
• - so they reinforce one another
• - so students are constantly engaged
• - so students are helped to get a sustainable
workload over course time

39. Disposition
• Small-talk, my context of the talk
• ”Blendedness” of learning
• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending
• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift
– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”
• Wrap up + questions

40. Agile frameworks for pacing
Scrum in rugby, image in public domain http://cybernations.wikia.com/wiki/File:Cataduanes-rugby-scrum.jpg
Scrum

41. Problem: asynchronous work can be
done tomorrow as well
• The more asynchronous, the more risk for
procrastination
• Procrastinating individuals don`t handle
flexibility well

42. ”This is very much like
our Scrum time boxes
in agile software
production
processes.”

43. Agile project frameworks: Scrum, XP,
Lean, Atern
• Just a thought experiment
• Courses are not software projects, but similarities in
some process characteristics
• I want to generate ideas
• Agile@ibm developing Learning solutions
• Agile methods in computing programming project courses
• Tesar, M. & Scieber, S. (2010) Managing Blended Learning Scenarios by Using Agile E-learning
Development
• See ”The Scrum Guide”

44. Background: Waterfall model
Big
design up
front?
Critique:
Inefficient use of time
Bad transparency
Deadline delays
Bad code
Non-sustainable workloads
Unhappy customers
Perfectionism and deadlines just don t
work well together

45. Scrum
Atern
XP
Lean

46. Scrum crash course
3 Roles 4 Ceremonies 3 Artifacts
1. Product owner 1. Sprint planning 1. Product backlog
2. Scrum master 2. Daily scrum meeting 2. Sprint backlog
3. Development 3. Sprint Review 3. Burndown chart
team 4. Sprint Retrospective
From
intellijens.com

47. Idea 1: Thinking in ”Time boxes”
Shorter periods within a course, with own
deadlines, resources, deliverables
- for collaborative learning
- Linking together synchronous, asynchronous
and semisynchronous modalities
- Time box, scope, quality – which to
compromise?

48. TIME BOX

49. WHY TIME BOXES? WHY NOT CALL IT MODULES?
Times boxes are like Russian dolls, and each comes with resources, deadline, deliverables

50. Idea 2: Planning Poker?
Source: Marketing image on http://www.agile42.com/en/agile-coaching-company/agile-scrum-
tools/planning-poker/

51. Idea 2: Planning Poker?
• ”Poker” - show of cards at the same time
• Prioritization game with MOSCOW cards
(Must have, Should have, Could have, Wont happen this time)
• Time / workload estimation with Fibonacci
numbers (1,2,3,5,8, 13, 21, 34 etc) , nr 8 is a reference object known to all
• Discussion, iteration, etc
• Helping student see their work as tasks to
do, prioritize and estimate time consumption

52. Idea 3: Transparency of team work
• Kanban board? …or just facebook updates of
studying activities
• Check in and out backlog items
A simple Kanban board, wikimedia Commons By Jeff.lasovski (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Image from Trrello.com

53. Idea 4: Daily Standup, (Daily Scrum
Meeting)
• Short update, 3 questions, standing up, max 15
minutes duration:
– What did I do yesterday?
– What am I going to do today?
– Are there any problems?
Sprint/Scrum master is managing an impediment list,
impediments should be removed within 24 hours
In courses – weekly and online, for all?
”Status reports”

54. Space-time
• Spatiotemporality
• Spatialization of time
• Temporalization of space
• Time compression
• Space compression

55. Disposition
• Small-talk, my context of the talk
• ”Blendedness” of learning
• ”Space /Place” perspective on blending
• Perspective change; Time and blending
– Synchronous / Asynchronous shift
– Agile frameworks, applied for pacing
• Future transition ”blended” – ”new normal”
• Q&A

56. ”Blended” as a ”creation myth”
• As it once happened, it will always continue?
• …a distance learning teacher used his
methods in a campus class…
• …or a traditional teacher became ambitious
(or lazy) and used new tools…
• The first happening is a pattern to follow
rigourously?
• Our forefathers made it right, then it
deteriorates…?
• …but must we be that conservative?

57. When will we stop talking about
”blended”?
• Is the printed book a problem? (once was…)
• When technology becomes useful and works,
we don´t call it technology any longer
(Hinssen)
• Re-ontologization (Floridi)
• Dialectical pattern? Conflict thesis and
antithesis becomes a synthesis?
• …containing both but being something new?
• New normality of education is forming?

59. Thanks for listening
and patience!
anders.norberg@edusci.umu.se