BLENDED LEARNING: THE “HAZARDS & RISKS” Dr. Vince Gawronski Dr. William Holt Birmingham-Southern College

A GENERATIONAL GAP? Beatrice

DEFINING THE PROBLEM Technology in daily life Overlapping academic interests BL for liberal arts colleges

PROJECT DESCRIPTION ACS Grant January Term Technology Used

PROJECT DESCRIPTION Understand the value of blended learning and adeptly use blended learning technologies and tools to collaborate with other students and the instructors. Elaborate upon the concepts of human security and safe communities. Distinguish between environmental hazards and urban social risks and understand how they may interact. Identify trends in urbanization, demographics, and climate change. Access information resources for identifying hazards and reducing risks. Employ the tools and technologies for hazard identification, risk mapping, and assessing urban risks. Become familiar with potential career tracks in environmental hazards research, disaster management, and urban planning and the required education and training.

THE COURSE Environmental Hazards and Urban Social Risks

SOME LESSONS LEARNED Expect to invest a considerable amount of time setting up the blended and flipped elements of your course. Scheduling meetings with IT personnel and guest lecturers and converting traditional teaching materials to blended learning format requires significant start-up time. Things will not always go as planned, so be patient and always have a back-up plan. Don’t give up on the technology if something does not work the first or second time. It is imperative to have knowledgeable and effective IT support. When setting up remote class visits ensure that the technologies are compatible and that your guest has support on his/her campus. Do not expect all of your students to be technologically savvy. Be patient with them.

SOME LESSONS LEARNED Introduce online game simulations early in the term. Do not assume every student is a gamer. Allow time for the students to become familiar with the game before you actually use it in class. Establish clear rules, such as what to post, what not to post, how to post, and where to post, when using a learning management system that is available to the public. Blogs, comments, and photo uploads need some degree of oversight and organization. Provide clear guidance when flipping certain elements of the course. Give students instructions on how a video or online exercise is to be used at home and in the class. Do not expect students to understand what you are trying to do and how you are trying to do it. Do not allow technology to interfere with course content. The technology is supposed to enhance the course content. The liberal arts college model for blended learning requires significant face-to-face time, but students respond well to remote guest lectures and some flipped content.

TECHNOLOGY AND F-BOMBS The Tele-Human