ABSTRACT
The focal point of the adoption of learning technologies in education has become the blending of online and face-to-face learning experiences. Nearly a decade ago, it was reported that approximately 80 percent of higher education institutions in the USA offered blended learning courses (Allen, Seaman & Garrett, 2007). More recently, a study of North American undergraduate students reported that nearly four out of five had taken a blended course (Dahlstrom, Walker & Dzuiban, 2013). This shift to blended learning has also been noted by a panel of experts who have stated that “blended learning is on the rise at universities and colleges” (Johnson, Adams Becker, Estrada & Freeman, 2015, p. 16) and has been termed the “new normal” (Porter, Graham, Bodily & Sandberg, 2016). What is evidentially clear is that blended learning is at the center of contemporary educational approaches to thinking and learning. As blended learning becomes embedded in educational institutions con-
comitantly, we are witnessing a transformation focused on engaged learning experiences. Our increasingly connected world with its knowledge economy makes the provision of sustained collaborative thinking and learning not only a rational but essential response. Blended approaches to learning that maintain connectivity over time and distance have demonstrated the ability to create and sustain communities of learners focused on the advantages of thinking and learning collaboratively. That said, the theoretical concepts and principles outlined in previous chapters apply particularly well to providing blended learning experiences.
