“Deep and meaningful learning experiences are best supported by the active learners”
Technology has been fascinating and challenging the human brain over the generations in diverse fields. Whether it be social or cultural development, nothing has been left untouched by it. No doubt technology has made human life easier on earth; we can see its impacts in every arena of society; agriculture, education, environment and so on. However, the intention of this blog is to magnify another derivative of technology in education: blended learning.
Blended learning is defined as “a coherent design approach that openly assesses and integrates the strength of face to face and online learning to address worthwhile educational goals” (Garrison D.Randy, Norman Vaughan. Blended Learning in Higher Education.2007).
The conventional method of teaching in a classroom is now transformed into online training environment where verbal instructions, within four walls, are accompanied by technology based teachings. Both are carried alongside to provide a comprehensive and learning experience to the learners.
Such learning involves:

• DIY projects and assignments
• Online discussion forums
• E-lectures for the classes
• Online educational courses and examinations

This mode of learning permits and encourages students to learn in an innovative and interactive way by which they can access anywhere, any study material according to their needs. The face to face communication in a classroom and online communication are blended in a way to strengthen the internet-based learning opportunities.
Evolution of learning
Blended learning is based on the need of more engaging learning experience for students. Going back to the last decade, the traditional classroom lectures were the chief play to instill learning and literature in the students but since time is changing rapidly it works no longer. Extensive, tiring, and ordinary lectures reduce the student’s capacity to interact and learn with any interest. This does not mean that lectures are efficient no more since the in-depth discussion and dissemination of information and knowledge is a must even in 21st century. But information and communication technology’s initiative of online learning binds students to knowledge and education maintaining their interest and allowing them to plunge into the pool of information and technology. But neither online learning nor traditional face to face learning would contribute individually in advancement of the conventional ideals of higher education. Thus, blended learning came into existence.
Blended learning in institutions/higher education
Higher education system today is in a pressure to continuously adapt and evolve according to the societal needs as 21st century is striving towards digitalization. As discussed earlier, online or e-learning and traditional pedagogy when come together marks the efficient learning experience for students. Usage of applications like GoClass, Broadcast, and iPad in classrooms would enable both students and educators to move a step further towards education and learning. Therefore, many institution and universities are getting hands on blended learning when the urge for a change in teaching and learning occurred. Conventional face to face pedagogy with internet as a tool in a classroom serves students with better and interactive learning experience.
Also it is a sort of self-personalized learning with institutions’ support to help students exploring and assessing what they prescribe. But switching to blended learning from face to face teaching is not as simple as it appears for the institutions and faculty. Budget expansion and teaching hours without affecting the quality of learning is problematic for the higher educators. Also, implementation of blended learning involves the choice of suitable methods to attain the goals of transformational but innovative learning. Here are provided few of the basic models of blended learning:
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• Rotation model: This model of blended learning involves the active participation in both online and offline learning. Specific time is provided to complete the various tasks assigned to the small groups of students. The reason it is called rotational model because the groups rotate across the tasks timely and each group participates in the respective tasks involved.

 

• Flex model: It is classified as the mode of learning in which entire learning is acquired by the student online in the campus of the institution. Academic concepts and teachings are delivered to them through iPad, or any such tool regardless of the time limit. However, one to one tutoring can also be done by the teacher if needed.

 

• Enriched virtual model: Under this model, there is no compulsion for the students to visit institution in order to learn and study. Virtual teachings are provided through webinar, broadcast, or any other mode to connect student with the teacher. Also, some institutions and universities develop their own applications for their convenience.

 
Why switch to blended learning?
Go-getting towards digital age, our standard of living has been changing and thus, mode of acquiring knowledge should also adapt itself to blended learning. It has many advantages for students, teachers and future generation itself:

• Time and cost saving mode of learning
• Opens up research skills for the students
• Highly interactive teaching
• Access to study material across the globe
• Supports face to face teaching and learning method
• Gives student the autonomy to grasp knowledge on their own
• Propagates computer literacy among the students

Technology-based blended learning is an advanced mode of learning which gives autonomy, convenience and flexibility to the learners to prefer and choose how and when they should learn. It is another example of technology’s contribution in the field of education.

Education can be rightly termed as the backbone of any society, government or organization. Without the right kind of education, success becomes almost impossible to achieve. Hand in hand with education goes teaching methodology or the ways in which education is imparted across the length and breadth of a nation. As times progress, it is natural for teaching methods to change or adapt to new technology for better benefits. So why is it so important to upgrade to new methods of teaching?
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1) No stagnancy: For a system to work – be it at the primary level or in universities imparting higher education, there needs to be a design that helps to keep things rolling. Any form of constants in imparting education defeats its most general purpose of giving knowledge. A professional learning community goes a long way to ensure that stagnancy does not get a rank in teaching techniques. 

2) Resistance to Change: By nature, we do not like to change and that applies to most things. Stepping out of the comfort zone poses a great challenge to create new paths as well as to accept those new ways.For example, often there is resistance in a community when a certain process is changed in theneigbourhood school. It often takes years to apply an upgraded teaching strategy and to prove that it works.

3) Percolation: Any change that is created at the top level of the education system has to trickle down to the last rank. Similarly, changes in the smaller ranks have to go up to the right levels above it. This movement is not as easy as it may sound. 

4) Adapting to technology: Teaching methods have to be adapted according to the latest trends in technology. From the traditional chalk and talk methods of teaching, classrooms have now transformed to accomodate ultra modern audio and visual aids. Use of computers, laptops or even Ipads are common in teaching these days.

5) Networking: One of the most significant upgrades to the education system is the creation of digital networks across various institutions. Now higher education bodies can network and reach out to high schools or even primary schools thus bringing advanced and improved techniques right to the doorstep of the neighbourhood school.

While it is important to create change, it is equally important to see that this change is implemented. A professional learning community can become the platform for creating and implementing the upgradation of teaching methods. 

A child learns as much at home as at school. To say that teachers in the school are responsible for all the learning that your child can be subjected to, would be, to say the least, completely wrong. As far as support systems go, your child depends as much on you as their teachers for learning. Sometimes, even more. 
As you may have experienced yourself, learning is a lifelong process. And the onus to help your child become a lifelong leaner lies on you more than anyone else. How can you, therefore, accomplish this, mind you, mammoth task of raising lifelong learners?
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1) Positive Attitude: First and foremost, develop and cultivate a positive attitude for learning. Children are prone to measure things into two categories – winning or losing. The challenge for a parent here is to erase the hard line between winning and losing and draw a finer one that expresses the importance of learning in brighter terms. 

2) Learning from setback: Every body likes to succeed. Everybody likes to win. However, not everyone does. As a parent, you need to make your children understand that not winning is not the end of the world. Setbacks do occur and what you learn from them is what makes you the real winner.

3) Learning from winning: Winners take it all, but sometimes they forget to take any lessons they may have learnt from the experience. Imbibe in your child that when they win, they need to understand that more than the win, what they have learnt from it – is more important.

4) Encouragement: Always encourage your child if he/she seems to express interest in an activity. And encourage them to do it on their own as much as they can without you putting in your inputs. Give them directions at the most if you have to and let them figure it out for themselves. Again, if your child seems interested but reluctant to try an activity, a little encouragement from you might help him cover that extra mile.

5) Reading: Definitely an undermined activity with all the buzz of televisions and video games taking over your child’s life, reading is perhaps the most important habit that you can help to imbibe in your child.

Children learn more from what they see and experience than what is said or intructed to them. Therefore, if you want to raise lifelong learners, you need to practice everything that you like to preach to your little ones. 

Are you finding it difficult to get increase the amount of takers of your e-learning courses? Do you know that it takes a lot more than just good teaching text material for an e-learning course to be awesome? Read on to know how you can make your e-learning courses more interesting.

E-learning has suddenly taken the world by storm. It has helped students to get their required learning experience easily and from anywhere with just an internet connection. The global market for e-learning has also grown exponentially and as of now there are reported revenues of more than $50 billion worldwide. But, learning should always be fun and an interesting activity. So, easy learning techniques should not be the only criterion that e-learning should fulfil.

Learning should always be an interesting activity and unfortunately, sometimes, even the most interesting subjects can turn out to be boring when it is under the wrong hands. E-learning is no exception when it comes to this. If your course is not designed with care, it may turn out to be boring and unpopular. Here are some steps which will help you in this matter:

1. Understand the Objective of Your Course

Is your course materials connecting with the students it is suppose to target? If you are making a course for primary school students and you use languages that are at the level of high school students, then your e-learning objective is not on target. 

Not only you, but even the students should understand the objective of the course. Will they get to learn what they are expecting? What are the benefits that your students will get after completing the course? Everything should be transparent. 

2. Not just interactive, it needs to be practical
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It is a good thing that you have made your e-learning courses interactive; but is it serving the purpose. Interactive is the best feature when it comes to e-learning. It lets the learner to have a better control over what they are learning. There are different types of interactive learning processes like click to pop-up, rollover, carousel, flash cards, and the list goes on. You must be aware which type is best-suited for your e-learning courses​.

3. Should be functional and easy to navigate

A thing is interesting when you spend a lot of time with it. If an e-learning course is supposed to be interesting, then learners should be able to feel easy to navigate. Otherwise, they would just close the window and never come back. Navigation also helps the learners in their flow of learning. Bad navigational styles make it less efficient and hamper the whole learning process. 

4. Use multimedia and games to make it interesting

Multimedia is an effective medium for learning. It helps learners to connect and stimulates the brain to form a memory of the course through visual description. It has been found through research that one can remember things more easily through visual descriptions. 

5. Narrators should be able to grab the attention of learners

If you are using narration for some text in your e-learning course, then make sure that you use proper human narration rather than robotic ones. It will give the impression of human interaction. Also, do not use a narration that feels boring. It should be well-articulated and have a script that makes the user understand the topic very well. 

​The above steps will definitely tune up your e-learning course and make it more interesting that before. If you have any ideas of your own please feel free to share. 

Hasib is a professional writer working with one of the top job website in India –Naukri.com. As a career coach, he helps professionals in making decisions related to career and job opportunities. He is an avid reader and lives for two things – football and food. If he is not involved in any of those, you can find him contemplating existential issues. Follow him @ twitter, Google+, LinkedIn

Internships provide a window of opportunity to those looking for hands-on experience to enhance their relevant knowledge and skills required for a particular career field. Short term in nature, Internship is all about applying the theoretical knowledge of the classroom into the real world. Usually, a supervisor assigns specific tasks and does the evaluation of the allotted work. These intern programmes are proving to be very beneficial to every organization. Below are the five benefits of having an internship program in your organization:

1. Streamlining of recruitment drive
Through intern program a company can search a better qualified candidate who is most suitable for the job. Interns give reviews about the intern program and they can refer qualified candidates for the company. These interns can be hired for full time employment if they have proved their worth for the company. Moreover, a company can judge their strength and weakness efficiently which is not very apparent in their resume.

2. Cultivating the crop of tomorrow's Manpower.
By hiring the interns a company is not only providing benefits to itself, infact it is also providing support and skills to the students through employment and training. To put in other way, the company is paying back to the society.

3. Learning with the Interns
It is not that only Interns are getting the opportunity to learn and grow but as a fact of the matter you will also learn while teaching them and answering their queries about organisation, technology and workforce etc. To be a able mentor or teacher employees need to be equipped with required knowledge and skills in order to answer their queries.

4. Widening of the Horizons
Younger generation (or shall I say digital generation) is equipped with modern technology, connected with social media and plugged with digital devices to accomplish their task quickly and efficiently. Learning never ends, therefore, the employees should not shy from learning while teaming up with interns in order to produce innovative products and services for the company.

5. Saving on the Cost
Company can save on its costs and resources while extending this wonderful opportunity i.e., internship to interns who are ready to take on the world. Generally, a company spends a lot on its employees in terms of salaries, allowances, pensions, packages etc. but in case of interns they just need to provide the relevant exposure to the interns who in turn provide their knowledge and innovative ideas to the company. It is a win-win situation for both parties.

The world is constantly evolving and changing. Things have come a long way since we started learning in open spaces to the temperature controlled, technologically advanced classrooms of the current times. Here is a sneak peek into how the education has evolved and people have started using education as a tool for overall development. 

The older times – There were times when learning happened in the most unusual way. People did not have the right kind of infrastructure to aide learning and the education was imparted in an amateur manner. The stress in those days was on written learning and it was ensured that the students are taught to read and write to earn a living.

The beginning of change – The change started to happen and people started paying more attention to the way in which students spent their day at the school, the infrastructure was developed and technology was introduced. Students were given an opportunity to present to their class and they were taught to speak in public.

How we fare today – The scene of the classroom has completely changed in the modern times. The focus has shifted from teaching to development and subjects are changing from the conventional ones to those that influence the personality growth and development of the students. More stress is given to learning subjects that interest the students than the stock subjects. It is also made sure that the students are prepared to make career choices early on in life while the education is imparted to them.

Learning and education has seen great amount of changes. We do not realize it but the changes that have come about are extremely important and it is seen that the modern education really makes the students ready for their future and life, unlike the education in the olden times that only focused on imparting information.

For those who enjoy no bars held learning, almost anything can turn into a tool for aiding it. One such tool in the recent times has been the mobile. With the increasing popularity of the smart phones, a number of learning avenues and techniques have opened up for those who like to go on learning irrespective of where they are or what they are doing. Here’s a list of ways in which mobile proves to be the most important learning tool for the modern user. 

The application:
The most common feature of smart phones is the ability to offer access to applications. The applications that are developed for learning a subject, a language or a skill may all be used on the mobile and one may be able to go on increasing their knowledge with the help of the application.

Web searches:
A lot of times the mind feels intrigued and yearns to know the nuances of things. When there is no one to explain, you tend to turn to the mobile for all the information that you need. The online search feature that a web driven mobile offers is one of the biggest instruments that aides learning.

The video playback feature:
Videos and tutorials play a major role in learning trends in the modern times. Almost everyone refers to watch a video or a tutorial in order to learn as compared to reading about a topic. The ability to play videos on the mobile makes it the most loved gadget among those who rely on tutorials for their knowledge database.

As times change and the world advances, the small inventions such as smart mobiles are the ones that make the greatest impact on the knowledge accessibility for people. Without the mobile, one may feel lost out.