As long as I can remember, alternatives to the classic classroom education model have always been an option. When I was growing up, some students attended school full time, some were home schooled, and others were enrolled either partially or fully in distance education. The later, distance education, always fascinated me as a student as a few of my classmates throughout the years were or had been partially or fully enrolled in distance learning at one point or another.
Prior to our PDP starting in September 2020, my only previous experience with blended and online learning was when I was in 8th grade. Halfway through the year in 8th grade I decided that French immersion was no longer for me and that it was time to switch to the English education stream. Because of the inherent difficulties present in changing classes mid-year, my parents and the school’s administration decided that it would be a smoother transition for me to do the remaining half of my school year through distance education and then to return to the school for the start of 9th grade. This distance education was done through an organization called NIDES (North Island Distance Education), and has in recent years seems to have primarily ‘rebranded’ to “Navigate”.
Here I will be candid, my experience with NIDES was lacklustre at best. I found that my teacher(s) would contact me only if I was the one to initiate contact, I had an extremely minimal support structure and had to rely on my mother for help in mathematics (and other subjects), and found myself to be extremely unprepared for tests and final exams. Additionally, NIDES would simply send me package upon package of mundane (and overly simple) worksheets and organizers to fill out and return. Factors such as these, and a general lack of student accountability resulted in me frequently ignoring school for other activities, , games, or even napping (!) and left me with the sense that I never truly learned anything meaningful.
Flashing forward almost 15 years and once again I’m experiencing blended learning! However, unlike in the 8th grade where I felt thrown into disarray and was generally unprepared for the tasks at hand, now I feel as though I’m organically learning in ways that resemble in-person teaching. Despite the inherent challenges present in online learning, I feel as though our UVic professors have done a fantastic job in providing engaging synchronous, asynchronous, and blended learning opportunities. The combination of online class sessions and in-person practicum and Link2Practice opportunities have worked together well to provided a rounded education where my needs as a learner are being fulfilled.
How is this relevant to my future practice? Well, to be honest, I’m not sure what positions or opportunities will be available to me after graduation and as a result, I want to prepare myself for just about anything. In order to do so, I have been preparing lesson and unit plans, as well as general resources, graphic organizers, games, and worksheets that accommodate and take into considerations a variety teaching and learning situations such as blended learning, online learning, and balancing asynchronous/synchronous learning. I feel that by carefully considering distributed learning options such as these when diversifying my teaching portfolio I will be better prepared for whatever role is requested of me as a potential future educator.