Understanding The Terms 🤷‍♀️ Blended What? Simultaneous Who?

In preparing for our fall curriculum, we are hearing terms that may all seem to be describing the same thing, however, they are not. Those three most common terms you hear from districts around the LA region and beyond are Blended Learning, Simultaneous Learning, and Hybrid Learning. As confusing as it sounds, this will give you a better understanding of how they differ.

Blended Learning:

There has been use of this term for some time now, it was the way I learned in college. The term explains itself, where you take two models and use them both. We would have some classes in which we would complete through distance (remote) learning, where we had the support of our teachers but we used an online platform such as zoom. On other days, we would have face-to-face instruction, though never at the same time. For instance, we would meet on Mondays and Wednesdays on campus, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we would meet online for a lecture and complete modules that gave us some control over our pace of learning.

Hybrid learning:

In general, this describes the situation in which a student learns part-time in person and part-time online. This type of learning does not require any learning to be accomplished remotely ( learning in a setting outside of school). As a result, students have no control over the time and pace at which they are learning.

This schedule example displays how a class is broken into 2 groups and shows that when group A is face-to-face learning in the physical classroom, group B is learning online without support from the teacher (asynchronous work). This seems similar to what many schools are already doing but the difference is that no remote learning is occurring during the hybrid model. It is for this reason that a relatively new term has been coined for what many elementary schools are planning to try in the fall: "simultaneous learning."

Simultaneous Learning:

This is the strategy in which many districts are suggesting we attempt this coming fall but have confused this method with Hybrid Learning. Where hybrid learning and blended learning do not require teaching students who are on zoom ( zoomies) and students in your room (roomies) at the same time Simultaneous Learning does. This is the greatest distinction of all three terms. Planning and implementing engaging learning experiences requires a different approach with simultaneous learning. Although it may seem like you have to work twice as hard to plan for your roomies and zoomies you do not. We just have to make the best of distance learning and the best methods of in-person learning and find the middle ground.