One of the many things to happen at November’s Bold L&D event was a discussion I had with someone about blended learning. They asked me if I was into it. “Absolutely” I heard myself say, which is true. I think it’s about taking different approaches to make sure that the learning of the skills or behaviour change gets embedded. It means people can pick up different things about the topic in different ways and interact with and reflect on them appropriately.
Then I heard myself chattering on as a thought popped into my head. The term “blend” made me think of my breakfast. For a year or so I’ve been having blended fruit smoothies for breakfast. Nutritious, filling and healthy. Recently I’ve not fancied them so much and have been eating fruit and nuts from a bowl. This just made me question whether “blended learning” is right for everyone. Should we “blend” all the things we do together to create some kind of mush?
This was my tweet at the time:
Blended learning? Not learning mush, think fruit salad: enjoy the benefits of each bit leave what u don’t like, add cream if you want! #ldcu
— Jo Cook (@LightbulbJo) November 26, 2013
One argument for smoothies is great, we can add fruit and various protein/vegetable/herbal powders we wouldn’t eat on their own, but put together serve us well. Just like with any kind of personal development. We might not like something, but we do know it will be good for us.
However the drawback of this approach is that I wouldn’t put an expensive, exotic fruit in my blender as it would get lost in the noise of my other fruit.
Does it just come down to blend the right ingredients together for a nice smoothie, then eat my exotic fruit later anyway? Probably. Just a thought.
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