Welcome back to another edition of the IROSS BLOG!

Hyflex learning. Initiate challenge mode. An education style that requires a little bit more from everyone. Student’s can either be 100% online or fully present and you must be able deliver everything else in-between as well! AND you’re going to “provide the most equitable delivery format to students that align with their needs and learning preferences”. Oh and let that be subject to change at a moment’s notice! As a teacher wannabee this sounds next level. Sure the theory was digestible and even made good sense too. A student centered approach where the teacher’s concern should be “how to ensure students meet their needs as learners and adapt to changing conditions and dynamics”. I am happy to believe all of this is possible and I acknowledge how important this bridge is but I struggle to visualize what this would look like, let alone trying to imagine what this would be like or look like as someone without practical professional experiences.

I enjoyed some of the educational tips that were leaked in week 7. Some take aways I had from the Hybrid Flexible Class article and learning podcast were:
-Preference doesn’t always accommodate reality. Basically meaning sometimes the best methods aren’t always realistic.
-Ask for it! If you want something specific you must ask for it. Do not assume anything, be straight forward and ask for it.
-Establish those rules, construct the class. With flexible and hybrid learning, foundational ground rules become extremely important for setting everyone up (Teacher included) for success.
-The assumptions that go along with “it’s just not working” in regards to asynchronous education. This little tidbit really hit home with me. Any professional that has had to switch to a bit more online or asynchronous work has to think twice before saying “It’s just not working” because that means you believed it was working before and I mean most people would like to believe or be given the benefit of the doubt that your prior work was successful. That may not be the case for certain professionals just because we were accustomed to something doesn’t mean it was the optimum method. This made me think about how there are possible benefits from how the education industry responded and adapted to the pandemic. I look forward to the new equilibrium that will be forged in education because of the disturbance caused by the pandemic.

On short side note:
I am happy they choose the name hyflex over flebrid.

Building figures with 3d modeling was lots of fun with Tinkercad! I was slightly frustrated at how the coordinate and shape data were tricky to manipulate. My enjoyment would have been increased if I was able to insert and manipulate figures by the use coordinate locations and data instead of the use of drag, drop, and stretch.

Till next time!

IROSS