Collaboration and communication in blended learning environments

Abstract

Blended learning environments have become increasingly common during the past few years, and frequent access to digital technologies has influenced many areas of learning and classroom interaction. This paper investigates teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil communication and collaboration practices in a leading-edge Norwegian primary school. In this small-scale case study, seven teachers were interviewed individually and in their respective grade level teams, and two grade levels were observed for a 4-week period to find out how teachers in technology-rich classrooms utilize and consider the role of digital technologies in everyday communication and collaborative processes. Teachers’ overall perception in this study was that digital technologies are useful in communication and collaboration and thus, digital elements were frequently incorporated in their everyday classroom practices. However, the results also imply that while blended learning environments have opened new avenues for collaboration and communication happening parallel in physical and digital learning arenas, there is a lot of variation in how teachers guide their pupils in collaboration and communication and how digital technologies are utilized in such contexts. Particularly the comparison between proactive and reactive approaches to instruction regarding communication and collaboration indicates that explicit guidance in such processes can have a positive influence on the pupils’ group dynamics and effectiveness. Meanwhile, some of the benefits of supporting the act of collaboration and communication among pupils in a blended learning environment remained unexploited.

Affective and Social Competencies of Elementary School Students in the Use of Digital Textbooks: A Longitudinal Study

“…Ref. [ 11 ] confirmed the usefulness of digital technology for communication and collaboration in learning environments through qualitative research with teachers. Ref.…”

“…Recently, digital textbooks have incorporated AR or VR technologies [ 7 ]. Communication functions refer to the features that facilitate interaction between teachers and learners or among learners [ 11 ], allowing for active collaboration in an online environment through posting and commenting on discussions or real-time communication. Features that allow students to upload and receive feedback on assignments enable them to comfortably complete and submit their work [ 19 ].…”

“…Particularly post-COVID, as education swiftly moved online, there has been significant concern over the decline in students’ social skills. This shift has sparked increased interest in developing communication, collaboration, and social skills so students can effectively engage in societal tasks regardless of their environment [ 11 ]. Concurrently, the remote learning environment has spurred research to keep students motivated and engaged [ 12 ], thus increasing focus on affective competencies like intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy.…”

Critical Evaluation of Modern Strategies and Methods of Formation of Communicative Competency in the System of Continuing Education of Document Managers

“…We found that group work strategies include active learning (Anosova et al, 2022;Ben-Eliyahu, 2021;Chuang, 2021), flipped classroom model (Julia et al, 2020;Mitsiou, 2019), problem-based learning (Dorit & Nirit, 2022;Shalini, 2021), simulation-based learning (Abrandt Dahlgren & Hopwood, 2023;Cho et al, 2022;Mammadova, 2021), interactive lecture (Taat et al, 2020;Zhampeiis et al, 2022), intensive learning (Boonteerarak, 2021), and ICT-based learning (Akorede & Adeniyi, 2020;Poplavskyi & Bondar, 2021). In the context of formation of communicative competency in the system of continuing education, self-study strategies refer to personalization (Bekmanova et al, 2021;Yoel et al, 2022;Shemshack & Spector, 2020), peer learning (Johler, 2022;Johnson et al, 2021), selfregulated learning (Lemmetty & Collin, 2020;Santoso et al, 2022), and placement (Caspersen & Smeby, 2021;Woods, 2021). Table 1 demonstrates the review on modern strategies and methods to form communicative competency in the system of continuing education.…”

“…tailoring the educational materials to learners' needs (Yoel et al, 2022); transformation of the teaching experience and students' learning experience to achieve educational goals (Shemshack & Spector, 2020) Instructional video (Schmid et al, 2022) Interactive testing (Bekmanova et al, 2021) Work with multimedia textbook (Bekmanova et al, 2021) Didactic cards (Villatoro & de-Benito, 2022) Work with documents (Bekmanova et al, 2021) Quiz and games (Shemshack & Spector, 2020;Villatoro & de-Benito, 2022) Storytelling (Shemshack & Spector, 2020) Concept test (Shemshack & Spector, 2020;Villatoro & de-Benito, 2022) Peer learning students' learning with and from each other (Johler, 2022); horizontal educational process when students participate in instruction and evaluation (Johnson et al, 2021) Warm-up activity (Duran et al, 2019) Collaborative work (Mantra et al, 2019) Reporting (Johler, 2022) Conference (Johler, 2022;Johnson et al, 2021) Preparation of information messages (Johnson et al, 2021) Picture description (San Martin et al, 2020) Parallel control (Mantra et al, 2019) Webinar (Yang & Kim, 2022) Independent practice (Mitsiou, 2019) Peer evaluation (Johler, 2022;Johnson et al, 2021) Self-regulated learning Involvement of students' into organization and control of the learning environment (Lemmetty & Collin, 2020); process when students actively manage their own learning experiences (Mejeh & Held, 2022); process when learners monitor and control their cognition, motivation, and ...…”