assistive technology shows us that students feel good about the fact that they can use the tools of technology to create written products that have a professional look. In this case, Nick wouldn’t have to look to the left and right to compare his Impressionistic handwriting to his classmates. Instead, he would find that his writing is every bit as good and can be presented in the same form as everyone else.
■ While listening to the presentation Nick can instant message a friend, or even his teacher, and ask for clarification or help. With fewer time constraints, he can wait for an answer. He also could quickly consult a myriad of resources that might help him understand.
■ Nick could learn in his available setting and bring questions for clarification back to the classroom if videos and formative learning were offered online. This allows Nick a more personalized experience to his learning as he drives the learning with his specific needs in mind.
■ Nick could learn fully online and have access to his teacher through the phone or Internet. This model allows him to collaborate asynchronously with other learners, provides the flexibility in time to manage his schedule, and allows him to join groups with similar interests to engage in socialization with peers.
As you have surely guessed, Nick is not the only learner who could benefit from DEL in this way. As you begin to consider how you can use DEL in your classroom, it’s important to start with an understanding of the types of digital learning experiences available to you.
Types of Digital Learning Experiences
One complexity of embracing DEL is the variety of choices educators have for delivering digital learning opportunities to the learners they serve. Suffice it to say, there are some interesting choices that can significantly differentiate the experience. Consider the following questions.
■ Is your course or class asynchronous? An asynchronous course is one in which learning experiences are shared without regard to the specific synchronicity of time, space, and events (Smith & Basham, 2014). This means that in your course you present learning opportunities that can be executed anywhere at any time. For example, the facilitator may post a mathematics problem in a digital course using an application such as VoiceThread. He may then ask learners to solve the problem, thoroughly explain their answers, thoughtfully debate, and reflect on each other’s answers over the span of a week.
■ Is your digital class synchronous? Sitting in a face-to-face college lecture or executing a typical K–12 lesson plan in a traditional classroom represents a synchronous learning experience. In other words, in a synchronous environment, all the learners experience the learning opportunity at the same time and in the same space. Therefore, a synchronous digital learning experience is one in which learning experiences happen in real time, and all participants engage in the learning experience simultaneously (Smith & Basham, 2014). A teacher lecture or demonstration using Google Hangouts, Skype, or some type of webinar application represents an opportunity to provide a synchronous activity in a digital environment. Some K–12 digital schools have a student population who live hundreds or even thousands of miles away from one another, yet students’ learning is almost entirely synchronous, with students logging on each day and greeting each other via Skype or Google Hangouts. Their learning is just as synchronous as the students you know who drive or walk to a brick-and-mortar building each day and pull up a chair beside their classmates.
■ Is your class or course an asynchronous-synchronous blend? Some schools offer synchronous learning opportunities with face-to-face, real-time connections happening either in person or with the assistance of technology tools like Skype. Educators may then connect asynchronously by posting discussions or problems to be tackled by the class over a flexible, predetermined time frame. We’ve referred to blended learning multiple times already in this book. This type of class or course is an example of that.
What’s exciting about this option is that emerging evidence shows that this learning modality may, in some cases, provide learners with superior learning opportunities versus traditional, face-to-face-only instruction (Driscoll, Jicha, Hunt, Tichavsky, & Thompson, 2012). Our own experience supports these quantitative conclusions. Although there are K–12 learning experiences that are successfully facilitated in 100 percent asynchronous learning environments, we believe that the best approach is still a blended one in which there is at least some opportunity for synchronous contact and connection followed by asynchronous opportunities for learners to thoughtfully and meaningfully engage the instructor, their colleagues, and the content.
Believe it or not, you may already be teaching in a somewhat blended learning environment. Consider the following story involving a wildly popular, technophobic government teacher, Mr. Hill, and how he discovered he’d facilitated a blended learning environment without even realizing it.
DOUGLAS RETURNS THE FAVOR
Mr. Hill was a very successful government instructor at his local high school. Most of the students went on to college and had fond memories of their experiences with their charming and challenging senior-year teacher. An unapologetic technophobe, Mr. Hill always made the case—with great wit, volume, and exaggerated gesticulation—that technology and learning at a distance were leading to a cataclysmic erosion in creativity, brainpower, and the advancement of the human condition. He was one of those rare teachers who could lecture consistently and hold the students in the palm of his hand. His stories were legendary, and his anecdotes were state-of-the-art cliff-hangers that kept students remarkably engaged. Unlike his teacher colleagues, he did not have a website and didn’t post assignments or discussion notes online.
When a former student, Douglas, returned from college to visit Mr. Hill on the Friday before spring break, “the good Prof Hill,” as Douglas called him, was delighted to see him. As a student, Douglas had been curious, thoughtful, and exceedingly well-read. While in high school, he was willing and able to engage Mr. Hill on a variety of topics, and their debates were legendary and thoughtfully humorous. Given their past penchant for debate, Mr. Hill seized on the fact that Douglas, now a student at a very prestigious Ivy League university, was taking one of his core classes online. With great volume and humorous gesticulation, Mr. Hill chided Douglas for his online learning, professing the inevitable downfall of civilization thanks to the crushing press of an overly digitized world. After taking a breath from his rant, Mr. Hill waited for Douglas to respond. With a small smile creeping on his face, Douglas simply said, “Your class is online already, my good Prof Hill.”
For once, Mr. Hill was silent, then he smiled indignantly. “No, really, it is,” Douglas continued. After gracefully popping open his laptop, Douglas took Mr. Hill on a virtual tour that the teacher would never forget. Mr. Hill’s lecture notes, taken by his students, were posted and shared on Google Docs. Given Mr. Hill’s popularity, numerous former students had compiled copious amounts of interactive feedback about his class content online. There was also a Facebook page dedicated to “Hillisms,” with feedback and commentary from current students as well as those who had graduated a decade or more earlier. On a blog, students discussed course content, replete with scholarly references, YouTube links, and Snapchat rants to underscore their points. Douglas told Mr. Hill about the hours he had spent studying for his midterm and final, armed with group-text exchanges, instant-message-fueled cries for help from classmates, and a number of other seemingly endless digital connections reflecting on Mr. Hill’s class.
Mr. Hill is an amazing teacher who engages his students and stimulates their curiosity and love for civics. Despite his attempt, however, to keep his learning environment synchronous, Mr. Hill’s class had been summarily infiltrated by the technology tools of the day, adding asynchronous elements that undoubtedly enriched the learning experience for so many students. The brilliant Professor Hill always made Douglas think about things in new ways. On that day, Douglas returned the favor.
We share this story about Mr. Hill to
