These readings had no shortage of information crammed into them. Some I found to have the information I already knew or content that I could relate to my knowledge gained from other courses. I found myself drawing information from many different areas or experiences within school. The readings I could relate to the most were “Passphrases Tips” and “Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry.”

I was immediately chuckling as a read the line in the introduction, “Use the following tips to help you practice good passphrase hygiene.” I was unfamiliar with the term “Phishing” before reading this text, even with having it happen to one of my coworkers last month. Unfortunately, he received a call from someone posing as a representative from his bank… long story short he had fraudulent charges placed on his credit card not long after he finished the phone call. Along with that, this reading reminded me how I am at risk of my information by storing my passwords in plain text. Not only was I able to relate to the reading on Passphrases, it inspired me to make immediate changes; clear my passwords off my phone and come up with new ones.

As seen since the COVID-19 pandemic, “Blended Learning” is a common topic among all levels of students and educators. I must admit it was one of the most frequent topics of conversation/debate at family dinners in my household (to the point where it got annoying). The reading “Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry” touched on some of the points I remember from those evening conversations but was more informative and interesting to read. In my opinion, blended learning has changed the entire atmosphere of university learning and the challenges we students are faced with in our studies. Similar to this opinion, the authors of the reading state, that the goal of blending face-to-face with “text-based online asynchronous” learning is “to academically challenge students in ways not possible through either mode individually.” (Vaughan, Garrison, & Cleveland-Innes, 2013) On the other side, I cannot come to fully agree with the idea that balanced learning is difficult to teach. Although I see the difficulties of an experienced teacher trying to incorporate a foreign method of teaching into their own practice, I believe online teaching methods have their benefits and can make it easier for teachers. In many cases, I can see people wanting to stick with what has worked for them and resent the new style of text-based online work. However, some programs once figured out can lessen the load, stress, and time needed for teachers. For example, one of the longest processes for a teacher is marking. Having an online program such as “Brightspace”, professors at UVIC can simply enter the correct answers to a quiz once, and have the program automatically mark their student’s submissions in relation to the answers provided by the professor. This is one of many helpful resources associated with offering a “blended learning” style of education.

Vaughan, N. D., Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. AU Press. Retrieved July 6, 2022, from https://read.aupress.ca/read/teaching-in-blended-learning-environments/section/ac46044a-ecde-4fc4-846d-8c17fe8bf712

UVIC. Passphrases. Passphrases | Course Hub. Retrieved July 5, 2022, from https://teaching.madland.ca/passphrases