Inquiring into Presence as Support for Student Learning in a Blended Learning Classroom

In blended learning models, students do part of their coursework online and part in small groups with teachers in classrooms. The presence (teaching, cognitive, social) that teachers need to assert in blended environments has been the subject of much scholarly interest. The purpose of this paper is to share findings from a narrative inquiry that explored various aspects of presence in a middle level classroom. Findings are reported using a series of narrative episodes that have undergone narrative inquiry processes of burrowing, broadening, and retelling. What is described is a process wherein diligent dialogue and social presence were used collaboratively between participants in an effort to cross the boundaries between virtual and actual worlds so that problems could be solved, and off-task behavior could be redirected. These findings have implications for the preparation and support of blended teachers and for the evolving theorization of presence in K-12 blended settings.