Blended Learning (entry 1 of 3): Teaching Shakespeare Online

After reviewing some resources on blended learning this week, I’ve decided to take a few moments to talk a bit about what I had found.  Through Educause, a non-profit group devoted to promoting information technology, I was able to discover a vast range of presentations, blogs, podcasts and publications – all of which can be found here:  http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/HybridorBlendedLearning/33312

To make this topic a bit more concise, however, I chose to focus in on three of these resources (which I will break down into 3 posts, so as not to overwhelm/frighten everybody with long strings of heavy text, as sometimes I do end up ranting a bit…).  Here is the first one:

Podcast: To Hybrid, or Not To Hybrid? Teaching Shakespeare Online (podcast)
http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/HybridorBlendedLearning/33312

Through this podcast, I learned about the hybrid (a mix of online and f2f teaching) and online options available for courses at the University of Colorado, one of which, was “Shakespeare 3000”.  Given that Shakespeare (at least for me) was always so difficult to comprehend, and rooted so deeply in speaking the Shakespearian dialect, I was curious to see how non-traditional class structures would affect the learning experience (both for the students and the profs).  The podcast talked about how these newer class structures often give shier students a chance to express themselves.  When participating through blogs and online discussions, they have time to think critically about what they would like to say, and provide a response (with blogging) that is contributed at a pace with which they feel comfortable.  In the hybrid courses, one of the profs asserted that he would first look at the students’ blogs, and based on their content, often call on students who were shier, but clearly familiar with the topic, based on their writing.  This process was described as drawing students out “in a safe way.”  

For example, if a shier student would not raise their hand on their own, the professor can still engage them in class by saying things such as, “you made an excellent comment on your blog this week, would you mind sharing that with us?”  Alternatively, the professor said that this allows him not to “pick on” those who do not seem as comfortable with the material, based on their posts.  Though I’m completely supportive of allowing shier students to have a stronger involvement in f2f classes, I wonder if avoiding asking those who have not blogged as deeply is really the best way to go.  Although a student truly may not have understood the material that week, is there also not a chance that they are simply trying to get out of speaking in class, or avoid work (ie- writing on the blog)?  However, this was just one example from one school, so it is difficult to identify how other professors would deal with these situations.  Overall, however, I was extremely impressed by what was said, and really enjoyed the podcast format.  I found this topic really engaging on a personal level, and of course, very pertinent to the changing structure of student learning and thus, teaching.