Examen Parcial de Ingls Alumno/a:.

Blended Learning
With today's prevalence of high technology in many countries, blended learning often refers specifically to the provision or use of resources which combine e-learning (electronic) or m-learning (mobile) with other educational resources. Some would claim that key blended-learning arrangements can also involve e-mentoring or e-tutoring. These arrangements tend to combine an electronic learning component with some form of human intervention, although the involvement of an e-mentor or an e-tutor does not necessarily need to be in the context of e-learning. E-mentoring or e-tutoring can also be provided as part of a "stand alone" ("un-blended") e-tutoring or e-mentoring arrangement. Researchers Heinze and Procter have developed the following definition for Blended Learning in higher education: Blended Learning is learning that is facilitated by the effective combination of different modes of delivery, models of teaching and styles of learning, and founded on transparent communication amongst all parties involved with a course. (Heinze, A. and C. Procter (2004). Reflections on the Use of Blended Learning. Education in a Changing Environment conference proceedings, University of Salford, Salford, Education Development Unit, Available on-line: www.ece.salford.ac.uk/proceedings/papers/ah_04.rtf) A major criticism of such a definition revolves around their rigid insistence upon features such as "communication", "transparency", "parties" and "courses". These features do not necessarily have clear or unambiguous meaning in environments outside that of higher (or other institutionalised) education systems. In other words, the definition fails to acknowledge environments where blended learning does not raise issues of "transparency of communication" in the way it is envisaged in the institutional definition. This might refer to artificial intelligence systems, or animal training systems, which can be involved in blended learning since they employ combined resources. It should also be noted that some authors talk about "hybrid learning" (this seems to be more common in Northern American sources) or "mixed learning". However, all of these concepts broadly refer to the integration (the "blending") of e-learning tools and techniques with traditional methods. Two important factors to consider are the time spent on online activities and the amount of technology used. Here teacher or lecture uses multimedia teaching objects to improve his teaching efficiency so that better learner differentiation may be applied. Using the teaching objects which constitute the backbone of class activities, the conducting lecturer prepares the students, then plays the animated tutor like teaching objects and assesses students understanding via a range of online activities or exercises. Check out this pedagogy in action. There is a video of how this pedagogy is practiced in the classroom. The term "blended learning" can also be used to describe arrangements in which "conventional", offline, non-electronic based instruction happens to include online tutoring or mentoring services. This combination of e-tutoring plus conventional learning, although it is a perfectly valid example of blended learning, is the "opposite way round" to most current blended learning arrangements, in that the solution is driven by conventional learning techniques, not by the electronic techniques.

Read the text and write the main idea in one well-written sentence

Complete the blank spaces of the text with the words from the box neuroscience

understanding proof researchers abilities

connections test replaced

scientists molecule

How the Brain Learns Scientists have long held that learning and memory formation are made possible by the strengthening and weakening of connections among brain cells, but until recently (1) . didn't know how the process worked. Using brain cells from mice, Johns Hopkins University (2) . have discovered the key (3) . necessary for certain cells to weaken their (4) . with others. When scientists (5) . the molecule -- a protein called GluR2 -- with a modified form, they found the weakening process halted. Lead researchers Richard Huganir and David Linden, both professors of (6) ., hope to create a mouse that has only the modified form of GluR2 and (7) . its motor learning (8) . . Any deficiencies in the mouse's learning skills will serve as (9) . that the weakening of connections among cells plays an important role in the learning process. "It's about as close as we've gotten to (10) . a behavior at a molecular level," says Huganir.