Blended e-learning

Recently the tech gurus have given a Mantra of blending learning technologies which is not only the mixture of celluloid, textbooks and an instructor's lectures but also include desktops, CD-ROM software and the media-rich material as the ingredients. The Internet has made learning an around-the-clock, self-paced proposition which can be used by anyone. I came across an interesting write up which talks about the blend of various ingredients in an online program as referred in The article Wearing Four Pairs of Shoes: The Roles of E-Learning Facilitators (Hootstein, 2002) . Marc Rosenberg, principal at DiamondCluster International in Chicago, and author of E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age (McGraw-Hill, 2001), says that while blended learning is most often thought of as a marriage between classroom and computer-based instruction, the union dissolves when a company or academic institution fails to get the mixture right. "The question is not if we should blend," he says. "Rather, the question is what are the ingredients?"

The ingredients can be any. One can choose according the need of learners but keep in mind blend more than two.