face-to-face time, i2Flex, Community of Inquiry, blended learning, social and emotional competencies, morfosis educational paradigm, aristeia leadership

Περίληψη

Individuals today, need more than ever to be equipped with tools that will assist them in being able to cope with the changes they are faced with within multitude domains of their lives. Some of these domains may include, school, work, social and family environments and how each individual progresses as a human being across the life-cycle. As learning is a life- long process that touches and interacts with many domains of one’s individual life and overall functioning, individuals must be flexible and able to adapt to the everyday changes around them. More specifically in education, students over the last decade with increased technological advances have opportunities that extend beyond the brick -and- mortar traditional learning environment. They are now interacting with what literature indicates as “blending learning”; a combination of web-based teaching and learning experiences along with structured individual and collaborative interaction among students and teachers. In this chapter, the author will emphasize a particular model of blended learning referred to as i2Flex that has been piloted and utilized at the American Community Schools of Athens, Greece. This model will be examined with the view to illustrating how learning within this framework can assists students in being flexible and adaptive; enhances social-emotional competencies vis- a- vie their face-to-face interactions with their teachers (and online collaboration with teachers and peers),thus facilitating independence as 21st century learners.