Busan Office of Education to Establish 'Blended Classrooms' in All Schools
Building Environment for Post-Corona Future Education
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] A ‘Busan-style blended classroom’ capable of hybrid online and offline classes will be established in all schools in the Busan area.
On the 30th, the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education announced that it will promote the ‘Busan-style blended learning activation project,’ a project to build a hybrid online and offline school environment to prepare for crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic and to leap forward into future education.
To promote the project, the Office of Education reflected 31.9 billion KRW in the second supplementary budget this year and allocated 64.7 billion KRW in the 2021 main budget, planning to invest a total budget of 96.6 billion KRW.
‘Busan-style blended learning’ refers to education that improves classroom lessons through active use of online learning resources and builds a hybrid online and offline school environment where the boundaries inside and outside the school are broken down and practical learning takes place.
Online refers to improving classroom lessons through active use of educational platforms such as Google Classroom and MS Teams, which have been widely used in schools since the outbreak of COVID-19, as well as unit school learning management systems (LMS).
Offline refers to creating classroom lessons as content and building a classroom environment where the created content is uploaded to educational platforms or learning management systems so that students can learn anytime and anywhere online, thereby activating blended learning.
The Office of Education will promote this project divided into four areas: building Busan-style blended classrooms, step-by-step construction of online learning management systems (LMS), establishing a Busan-style blended learning culture, and developing Busan-style blended teaching and learning models.
First, the plan is to complete the establishment of Busan-style blended classrooms by next year for all elementary, middle, high, and special schools in the Busan area. These classrooms will be built as hybrid environments applying advanced edutech devices that can produce lessons as online content.
Second, to build step-by-step online learning management systems, the plan is to sequentially promote activation of online education platform use (2020), implementation of learning management functions through improvement of school (class) homepage functions (2021), and activation of unit school learning management system construction and operation.
Third, to establish a Busan-style blended learning culture, the project will be promoted targeting students, parents, and teachers, including preparing ways to apply remote classes to the school curriculum, strengthening blended learning training for teachers and parents, operating a blended learning support group, establishing a culture of open classes and sharing, and activating professional learning communities and teacher research groups.
Fourth, to develop Busan-style blended learning teaching and learning models, from the second semester of this year to February 2023, five blended learning research schools will be operated: three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school.
These research schools will be supported with one laptop per student and teacher and the construction of unit school learning management systems (LMS).
Kim Seok-jun, Superintendent of Busan Metropolitan Office of Education, stated, “This project is an educational policy promoted to prepare for the post-COVID-19 era and to leap forward into future education, and it will greatly contribute to improving classroom lessons,” adding, “It will also greatly help expand educational opportunities for students and reduce educational disparities.”
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