Hi Judith,

Thanks for your last blog about “How to support educational teams with the design of education.”   It again illustrates the difficulty of the implementation of blended learning. In the picture you use, several elements are mentioned which have influenced succesfull implementation strategies. In that graphic I miss the element of the management.

No, this is not a blog in which I want to complain about the management. I just want to try to see their point of view on this case of trying to get more blended learning. A case, sometimes struggle, sometimes a nice match, in which we have had several roles in the last few years. Their point of view is: why do we want blended learning, and do we as teachers, students and thus management want blended learning?

Quality of education is the dreamed answer, Sir Ken Robinsons’ vision of education that is not factory, which we were able to see on stage, is a wish waiting to come true. Self regulating collaborating networks of teachers and students co creating educational ecosystems is still science fiction. The managers want to dream, wish with us, they want to make science fiction into reality as well. But most of all they are stuck in that reality and sometimes we seem to forget.

The questions we have to answer aren’t how can we implement Blended Learning, as you said it yourself, that we know already. No we have to find the definite answer why do we want blended learning?

As long as we can’t translate our dreams and visions into profits, turn-over, student succes rates, student satisfaction, teacher satisfaction or regionwide knoweldge increase, management will have too much other priorities. So our real case is to illustrate the evidence there is in the context we are in so that management can dream, vision and make blended learning reality with us.

I believe that if we do, they will have a lot of fun doing it with us.

As a PhD student I will do my share, at least I will try, but I need allies. As a Zuyd community we will have to collect evidence. Not to defend our own faculty or our own model or framework which we have chosen, but to create an environment that is able to use the qualities we have to evidence based adjust our education to the demands the context or our working environments need.

Let’s go to sleep and dream on that.

Good night, Marcel Schmitz