The students in my group have now gone off into school placements for a couple of months, but before going, we captured some of their ideas and thoughts about the course they have been following. Two immediate ideas have become apparent in their views:
1. They enjoyed keeping the blogs on geographical concepts, and in several interviews carried out with students, they commented on the essentially liminal nature of the exercise. They saw the blogs as being a positive medium for playing around with ideas and developing a deeper understanding which not only allowed them to feel more confident in their own consideration of the concepts, but which also helped them cross a cognitive threshold in relation to teaching others about their concept. Interestingly, one student actually described their blog as a 'safe' space for carrying out this liminal transition, even though it was open to the world.
2. The use of pre-session lectures online, led to a strong belief that better use was made of the face-to-face sessions. Students have also remarked that these were positive not only due to the social constructivist nature of the exercises, but that these were supported by a physically flexible learning space which allowed them to stamp their own preferences on the use of the space.
As such, very much preliminary consideration of the rich seam of data collected suggests that the blended approach has helped to transform the nature and benefits of the course thus far.
