TEACHING LITERATURE THROUGH BLENDED LEARNING IN THE PHILIPPINES

In a country like the Philippines where access to technology is gradually taking off, the use of technology has been seen as a possible way of enhancing learning. Specifically for a literature class on modern short stories in a small university in the Philippines, blended learning was used to facilitate interaction between teacher and students. Many components of a traditional classroom were migrated online. Syllabus, homework, and announcements were migrated online. Homework was submitted through a web forum. Student journals were likewise posted in the web forum. Submission of papers was done through email. By moving most of the requirements online, classroom time was devoted to more intensive one-on-one interaction between teacher-student and student-student. Learning outside the classroom enabled self learning while in-class interaction facilitated personal dealings with students. The flipped classroom experience showed that by transferring classroom components online, students take control of learning. Better class interaction meanwhile allowed the teacher to better guide student learning. The study assumed that all students had access to the internet but still, there were a handful of students who had difficulties in regularly going online. Nevertheless, just because of more classroom time devoted to student interaction, the value of migrating many classroom components online is seen as advantageous. The model has been used to teach not only modern short stories but also other literary texts such as The Iliad, Anna Karenina, and the Divine Comedy.