Blended Learning Essentials: Getting Started

Selecting open tools to support your learners

In this exercise, we will look at a range of open tools, and attempt to match them up appropriately
with learning scenarios common in the VET sector, based on what we have learnt so far.
You will be asked to comment on your choices, and offered feedback. Remember to save your
responses to your reflective journal, for future reference.

Classroom-based activities
Classroom-based activities might include didactic delivery from the teacher to the learners, or more
commonly in the VET sector, it will probably include interactive activities between groups of learners.

Question 1a
Select from the following list all of the categories of open tools that you think would support students
learning in a classroom-based activity.
Choose as many as you like:
 Multimedia production (e.g. YouTube)
 Presentation tools (e.g. Prezi)
 Collaborative writing tools (e.g. Google docs / Mediawiki)
 Reflective tools (e.g. Wordpress)
 Interactive tools (e.g. Socrative)
 Social tools (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)

Question 1b
Pick one of these categories of open tools, and write some ideas of how you might use these in a
classroom-based learning context to encourage students learning.

Go to feedback for question 1

Informal social learning

Increasingly, learners are using technologies to support informal learning, outside of formal teaching
sessions. In this connected age, learners use technology to formal social groups to remove the
barriers of geography and time.

Activity created for Blended Learning Essentials, funded by Ufi Charitable Trust. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .
Question 2a
Select from the following list all of the categories of open tools that you think would support students
learning in this activity.

Choose as many as you like:

 Multimedia production (e.g. YouTube)

 Presentation tools (e.g. Prezi)
 Collaborative writing tools (e.g. Google docs / Mediawiki)
 Reflective tools (e.g. Wordpress)
 Interactive tools (e.g. Socrative)
 Social tools (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)

Question 2b
Pick one of these categories of open tools, and write some ideas of how you might encourage
learners to use these use these in an informal social learning context to support their learning.

Go to feedback for question 2

Work-based learning
Learning in a workplace environment may be independent or teacher/trainer supported; individual or
group-based. Work-based learning, e.g. apprenticeships, can make effective use of technology for
both trainers and learners. For this a

Question 3a
Select from the following list all of the categories of open tools that you think would support students
learning in this activity.
Choose as many as you like:
 Multimedia production (e.g. YouTube)
 Presentation tools (e.g. Prezi)
 Collaborative writing tools (e.g. Google docs / Mediawiki)
 Reflective tools (e.g. Wordpress)
 Interactive tools (e.g. Socrative)
 Social tools (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)

Question 3b
Pick one of these categories of open tools, and write some ideas of how you might encourage
learners to use these for reflection.

Go to feedback for question 3

Activity created for Blended Learning Essentials, funded by Ufi Charitable Trust. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .
Online learning
Online learning refers to the process of learning that takes place entirely online. This is becoming
increasingly popular within the education sector, where some courses will be face-to-face, others
blended and others fully online. For th

Question 4a
Select from the following list all of the categories of open tools that you think would support students
learning in this activity.
Choose as many as you like:
 Multimedia production (e.g. YouTube)
 Presentation tools (e.g. Prezi)
 Collaborative writing tools (e.g. Google docs / Mediawiki)
 Reflective tools (e.g. Wordpress)
 Interactive tools (e.g. Socrative)
 Social tools (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)

Question 4b
Pick one of these categories of open tools, and write some ideas of how you might encourage
learners to use them for this activity.

Go to feedback for question 4

Activity created for Blended Learning Essentials, funded by Ufi Charitable Trust. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .
Feedback for question 1
Neil says:
There are a wide range of technologies that can support classroom-based learning. Technology
enables learners to acquire knowledge, produce new knowledge, share knowledge and check their
own knowledge.
You could use a wide range of tools in a classroom-based setting depending on the learning
outcomes of your session.
For this type of activity, you would typically use multimedia production tools, presentation tools or
collaborative writing tools.
Go to the next learning scenario

Feedback for question 2

Neil says:

For this type of activity, learners will want to make use of collaborative tools, such as Google
Hangouts. They will probably also make use of their preferred social media networks, such as
Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to share updates, and will probably use these alongside email and
SMS.

Increasingly, learners are producing their own revision questions (e.g. MCQs) to reinforce their
learning, so they may use an interactive tool to produce and share these with their study group.

Go to the next learning scenario

Feedback for question 3

Neil says:
Reflection is a key component of the learning process, irrespective of the learning context.
Digital technologies can help learners to keep individual records of their professional development,
and to share these with named individuals or publicly.
In this example, you would probably advise the learner to use a reflective diary such as the blog tool
WordPress or to keep a video diary using a multimedia tool. However, a collaborative writing tool
such as Google docs would work equally well if the main aim was to keep a written record and share
it with others.
Go to the next learning scenario

Feedback for question 4

Neil says:
In this activity, learners would need to produce a resource that demonstrates them undertaking the
skill and shows them to be competent with all aspects of it.
Activity created for Blended Learning Essentials, funded by Ufi Charitable Trust. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .
Depending on the skill concerned, this may be best demonstrated through use of multimedia
production tools and some form of presentation or reflective tool.
It is easy to imagine a learner recording themselves with their smartphone, uploading this to YouTube
and embedding the video in an online Prezi with a narrative.

Activity created for Blended Learning Essentials, funded by Ufi Charitable Trust. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .