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Years ago, Anthony Kim, CEO of Education Elements, remarked to me that "Blended learning accelerates a good culture and makes it great, but it will also accelerate a bad culture and make it terrible."

As I've thought about his observation over the years, it rings truer with time. When I've seen great blended-learning models in action, the culture in the classroom-and often the school-is crisp and clear. When I've seen poor or uninspired blended models, it is nearly always because the learning environment is littered with inconsistent practices.

The implication? Implementing blended learning won't work without a positive and systematic culture to support it. Culture is especially useful-or toxic-in blended programs because blended learning goes hand in hand with giving students more control and flexibility. If students lack the processes and cultural norms to handle that, the shift toward a personalized environment can backfire.

So what is culture? And how do you create a strong culture conducive to student learning?

What is culture
In our new book, The Blended Workbook: Learning to Design the Schools of Our Future , Heather Staker and I use the definition from Edgar Schein, a professor emeritus at MIT and expert in organizational behavior. He defines culture as "a way of working together toward common goals that have been followed so frequently and so successfully that people don't even think about trying to do things another way. If a culture has formed, people will autonomously do what they need to do to be successful."

In other words, as a group works together to solve a problem, if it is successful then it tends to use that same solution-or process-the next time it confronts a similar problem. If what it tries is unsuccessful, however, then the group will likely search for a new solution. Over time, an organization's for how to execute what matters become so internalized that they become a matter of habit-or culture. priorities around what matters and

How to create a strong culture
Fortunately, as we share in our new book, good culture doesn't have to emerge from happenstance. Leaders can deliberately build the strong culture they need by following six steps:

1. Define a problem or task that recurs again and again.

2. Appoint a group to solve the problem.

3. If the group fails, ask it to try again with a different process.

4. If it succeeds, ask the same group to repeat the process every time the problem recurs.

5. Write down and promote the culture.

6. Live in a way that is consistent with the culture.

You can discern the health of an organization's culture by asking, "When faced with a choice on how to do something, do members of the organization make the decision that the culture 'wanted' them to make? And was the feedback they received consistent with that?"

The rules for changing a bad culture and for shaping a strong culture from scratch are identical. Identify and define the problems that need to be solved in the new organization and then solve them. If the solutions are successful, then repeat them until the processes and priorities become reflex within the organization's culture.

The types of problems worthy of exploration fall into a variety of categories, such as:

how the family and community will support a blended initiative;

how should students own their learning and monitor their progress;

and how should teachers conduct small-group and individual coaching sessions.

Within the last category, you might consider the norm for how a student who is working individually on a computer will get help when the teacher is engaged in small-group instruction.

The power of great culture
I had the privilege of spending time in the Enlarged City School District of Middletown, NY, this past academic year with its visionary superintendent Dr. Ken Eastwood. A longtime partner of Education Elements, the district has implemented blended learning across its schools in a thoughtful and deliberate way over the past few years. But what stood out to me wasn't the technology in the buildings. It was the consistent culture in every single classroom I visited.

A frequent refrain from some district blended-learning leaders is that they cannot replicate charter school models with coherent cultures throughout all classrooms because in a district school, each teacher has significant autonomy to create his or her own classroom environment. Regulations and work rules, leaders say, inhibit the ability to create a school with one strong culture as opposed to, say, 24 distinct ones in each classroom.

Walking through Maple Hill Elementary School in Middletown blew that notion to shreds. From classroom to classroom the models were the same and the culture was strong, tight and consistent. Routines were crisp. Students understood expectations and, at all ages, could articulate not just what they were working on, but often why. I could never tell whether I was in a classroom with struggling or accelerated students. Each had a plan personalized to his or her needs with teachers who were working hard in small-group settings.

The principal, Amy Creeden, is often found in the classrooms supporting her teachers. In fact, support is a very ingrained part of the culture in Middletown. It was clear that the district developed a comprehensive, whole-district rollout plan for blended learning with considerable professional development and co-design sessions with teachers. Involving all stakeholders in the planning from the get-go was key, I bet, to creating a consistent culture that laid the foundation for the the district has seen with students in blended-learning classrooms. strong results

The risks of getting culture wrong
Culture is simply too important to leave to chance. In profiling Anacostia High School, a 697-student Title I school in Washington, D.C., that has long been one of the district's most underperforming schools, a report by the American Enterprise Institute a few years ago highlighted the school's efforts to move to a blended-learning environment. The authors wrote about how the students used netbooks with an online portal that gave them access to an array of multimedia tools for learning and on-demand assessments that provided immediate feedback. The report talked about how students could log in with unique passwords so that teachers could track each student's individual progress.

And yet, the authors wrote, as they were observing a class, they saw that students logged in not with their unique ID but with a generic one. Some students struggled even with that, and it took them up to five minutes to enter the password. Rather than use the online assessment capabilities, the teacher used paper worksheets. And when one student struggled to understand a word, rather than use the computer's dictionary or Google, she walked over to a bookshelf and took her time flipping through a dictionary for help.

This represents a classic example of a program where leaders have left culture to chance, rather than aggressively shaping it. Middletown helps us see the power of creating a crisp culture that pervades the school. But for every Middletown, there is an Anacostia that has not paid as much attention to the culture as it should.

Our book is intended to support educators in creating a constructive and concrete culture-a topic that otherwise often feels challenging and vague. Leaving culture to chance is akin to risking the outcome of your blended-learning model and the opportunities afforded to the students served. Culture happens on its own or by shaping it. Our hope is that leaders take the time to shape it and make it a good one--because the success of your blended program likely depends on it.

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Blended Learning Won't Work Without a Strong Culture to Support It

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Years ago, Anthony Kim, CEO of Education Elements, remarked to me that "Blended learning accelerates a good culture and makes it great, but it will also accelerate a bad culture and make it terrible." As I've thought about his observation over the years, it rings truer with time.

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Our team has experience in supporting large districts with initiative alignment, change management, stakeholder buy-in, and in developing ways to scale sustainably.

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The History of Classylearn.com

My students inspired the name classylearn, the class of 2023, Cross Street Intermediate School.  This brand began as classroom 4e, which stands for emote, engage, educate, evolve.  So this is where I will begin my explanation.

I believe we emote every second of our lives, from the minute we emerge from the womb crying or just learning to breathe air.  Therefore, I believe children should be free to emote in the classroom.  And those emotions should be real, natural emotions that come from them and they are allowed to both explore and integrate into their learning.  This is a large discussion because it is filled with science, psychology, sociology, and personal insight.  We must teach children who they are, inside so that they can learn to respect and appreciate that first.

Engage is simply taking part.  I believe if we start with them, they will engage.  Both teacher and student should create curriculum together for the highest engagement possible. This means the teachers are the students and the students are the teachers; co-curators of their environment in learning both in the classroom and digitally.  I am the learner, who are my students, what do they care about, love, want to know?  What do they struggle with? While I do believe that engagement for students is critical, I also believe teachers need to engage on an equally higher level.  Become a part of the culture, the action, the learning.  It is no longer enough to deliver information, internet.  We need to become learners of children, evolving culture, world, humanity, ourselves.

Educate the whole child and the whole teacher.  While children need to be human, so too do teachers. They also need a place to emote and engage in order to educate themselves for their students.

Evolve.  I mean.  Let’s see where we are now and where our world is going.  Then we know what to look back at, what will be useful and use those things to prepare ourselves for what’s coming.  Because it is coming, like it or not.

Classylearn

Let’s have class.

Let’s take a look at what makes up our class of humanity today.  I will begin with my small world, in classroom 4e, where it all began for me.  Our class is made up of such diversity, it is never boring, we are American, but we are also muslim, hindu, Chinese, Portuguese, irish, Italian, etc…

What is classy?  It is sophisticated.  We are a sophisticated human race.  So much so that we have advanced our own comprehension.  We must learn our sophistication, what makes it that way and then teach it to our children so that they know who they are.

fancy, respectful,

way back when England knew how to educate the elite.  Art, literature, writing, sewing, communication, social respectfulness, etc…. why not put the elite in our public schools?  Make them the elite class.  Build the biggest best society of elites!!  Men knew how to hunt and game and debate and learn.  Let’s teach all of it to all of them. This requires redefining the elements of a cultured society!

Cultured!  What does that mean today?

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Thesis: Blended learning offers us a starting point from which to launch educational initiatives worldwide. These revolutionary efforts include teachers and students, as well as districts, states, and educational leaders. The new culture of learning demands that these various talents that comprise large educational institutions pool resources as is necessary for success in a democratic and informational society. This model combines the power of face-to-face best practices in constructive learning with the promise of innovation through technology enhancements; school is a social situation and when personal, authentic, and collective learning is at its center, it is just.

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It is especially helpful when the researcher applies APA format for their source at the top of each sysnopsis. This makes for an easy cut and paste JOBBIE!

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2 hours ago

Access the profile card for user: Rebecca Recco Rebecca Recco

Research is fun!

COLLAPSE

So, as many of you know, I moved and have to change my innovation plan.  I'm not sure I've nailed down my final plan, but now that I'm in my new school and can kind of start to see all the working parts, I am starting to see that a real need is for a blended learning plan for the entire school.  My school touts student-centered, technology rich learning, but I'm really not seeing it.  It seems this is a good place to dig in and start working.  Here's are some highlights from my research-gathering:

Moskal, P, Dziuban, C., & Hartman, J. (2013). Blended learning: A dangerous idea? Internet and Higher Education, 18, 15-23.

Overview:  This article provides a list of great considerations for adopting a blended learning program and ensuring it will work for all involved.  It covers everything from financial considerations to teacher training and support, student support in use of the system, infrastructure demands, and aligning the program to institutional goals.  This is a great resource for anyone considering a blended learning project because it gives a nice overview of the operation of a BL program, while giving specific examples of what works.
What worked:  Effective planning, support of teachers and students, keeping infrastructure working, using data to align planning to goals
What could have been done better:  Consider the context of your population and organization when designing a blended learning environment
How to apply the lessons learned:  Basically, this article is a giant list of best practices for making a blended learning system work.  Taking note of these suggestions and applying them to your plan will help, immensely.

Akgunduz, D. and Akinoglu, O. (Apr 2016). The Effect of Blended Learning and Social Media-Supported Learning on the Students' Attitude and Self-Directed Learning Skills in Science Education. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology - TOJET, 15(2). p106-115.

Overview:  This is a study of a Turkish BL program for 7th grade science students using Traditional teaching, blended learning, and blended learning with a social media component.
What worked:  Both blended learning and blended learning with a social media component worked better than traditional teaching.
What could have been done better:  The social media component might have been problematic because it is less structured, and too easy for students to get distracted.
How to apply the lessons learned:  Any BL program needs structure and consistency so students know where to go for answers, submit work, etc... especially in activities done online.  It is good to minimize confusion by moving most of the interaction to within the BL learning environment.

Brodersen, R. M., Melluzzo, D., Regional Educational Laboratory Central, (., National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, (., & Marzano Research, L. (2017). Summary of Research on Online and Blended Learning Programs That Offer Differentiated Learning Options. REL 2017-228.

Overview:  This is a huge study of research on blended learning programs and their outcomes.
What worked:  Generally, blended learning works better than online-only or traditional learning.
What could have been done better?:  Opt for student self-paced learning rather than teacher-directed or computer-adaptive learning.
How to apply the lessons learned:  Create a blended learning system that gives the student the power to self-adapt their learning, rather than relying on a teacher or a computer program to do it.

Lalima, & Dangwal, K. L. (2017). Blended Learning: An Innovative Approach. Universal Journal Of Educational Research, 5(1),

Overview:  This article gives a nice overview of Blended Learning best practices in India, but this data seems pretty applicable across the board for blended learning in any country.  The article starts with a large list of problems with blended learning programs:
What worked:  Again, this article points to the efficacy of blended learning programs for their ability to combine the best parts of both digital and in-class learning.
What could have been done better:  inappropriate teacher/pupil ratio, inability to address needs of special needs students, teachers not trained or supported in use of new system, lack of followup by teachers with struggling students, courses get stale if not updated
How to apply lessons learned:  Design courses that adapt to student needs (medical, educational, social, emotional, etc), keep program and activities updated, train and support teachers in working in a BL environment, don't overload courses with too many students, build a system for following up on struggling students on a regular basis.

Connell, M. W., Johnston, S. C., Hall, T. E., & Stahl, W. (2017). Disconnected Data: The Challenge of Matching Activities to Outcomes for Students with Disabilities in Online Learning. Journal Of Online Learning Research, 3(1), 31-54.
Overview:  This article discusses the challenge of finding useful data about special needs students because a lot of IEP data does not follow students into the digital learning environment, and because many digital learning environments do not track the way students can adapt work to their special needs within the learning environment.
What worked:  Instead of asking “what works best?” in some global sense, it is important to consider the more nuanced research question, “what works best, for whom, and under what conditions?”
What could be done better:  Systems need to be created so that data can be collected to ensure that the blended learning environment is working for all students, and that appropriate adaptations are being made for students with special needs.
How to apply lessons learned:  Design learning environments to be easily adaptable for students, and ensure that they have access to in-class supports, support within the digital environment, and know how to access those supports, if needed.

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5 days ago

Justin Clark

Blended Learning Sources

COLLAPSE

I will use the ideas presented below to explain why blended learning is the best option for increasing student achievement and postsecondary readiness, especially among subpopulation groups (ELL, sped, economically disadvantaged). I will explain our overall goal is to achieve a 1:1 student to teacher ratio, which is proven to be the most successful form of teaching but also the most costly. However, by incorporating blended learning with direct instruction we can achieve similar results by differentiating instruction to support and engage learners of all levels, tracking student progress and delivering feedback in a timely manner, and increasing student digital literacy to better prepare students for life after high school.

Downes, J. M., & Bishop, P. (2012). Educators engage digital natives and learn from their experiences with technology: Integrating technology engages students in their learning. Middle School Journal, 43(5), 6-15.

This article explains how using technology can feel like more work, but in the end it pays off. Students, teachers, and parents thought technology engaged students better and made for a better learning experience. Students like how technology can deliver a variety of interactions whereas paper is ‘boring’. Because of this, students were more inclined to continue learning outside of the normal school hours.

Tang, C. M., & Chaw, L. Y. Digital Literacy: A Prerequisite for Effective Learning in a Blended Learning Environment?

This study reveals what digital literacy is and suggests how to increase it. It concludes that students need to be self directed learners in order to succeed, and that additional training can support and grow students. Self efficacy and digital literacy, when combined together, create for a much better online learning experience.

Fletcher, J. D. (in press). Technology, the Columbus effect, and the third revolution in learning. In M. Rabinowitz, F. C. Blumberg, & H. Everson (Eds.), The Impact of Media and Technology in Instruction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

This article, funded by the Department of Defense, analyzes the different aspects of blended learning and finds that blended learning is far more effective than traditional classroom models. It compares technology based instruction to that of 1:1 tutoring as a reason for it’s success. This study also finds technology to be more cost effective than other alternatives, such as hiring more teachers to reduce class sizes. It also looks to the future and suggests technologies ability to adapt and interact with learners will surpass human teachers.

Bloom, B. S. (1984). The 2 sigma problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring. Educational Researcher, 13, 4–16.

This study finds that 1:1 tutoring instruction is far more effective than class and group instruction because it allows for constant feedback and corrective action to take place. It suggests that classroom teachers are bias (whether intentional or not) in the delivery of instruction, as they direct their teaching and questions to only a small number of students within the class. It finds that teachers have the ability to change their instruction to engage more learners and thus raise student achievement.

Kerr, M., (2012, September 4). Blended Learning Addresses Budget Constraints, Personalization requirements. Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Retreived from https://www.msdf.org/blog/2012/09/blended-learning-addresses-budget-constraints

This article discusses how the KIPP model uses technology to reach students and how technology allowed them to find similar success to small classroom sizes even with budget constraints. The article provides positive results of how the school was able to turn struggling students to being above the national average.

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I am highlighting them orange as I use them. This way I know which ones I have already explored and imported into my review. :)

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I am highlighting them orange as I use them. This way I know which ones I have already explored and imported into my review. :)

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12 hours ago

Osman Guneri

Discussion 4

COLLAPSE

We want to remind you that you that you are not alone in the work that you are doing and that is crucial for you to share the resources that you have found with your colleagues/classmates.

Hi, everyone! I wanted to share what I had so that everyone else could make the most of the sources I put, I hope it's helpful.

Chen, B. H., & Chiou, H. (2014). Learning style, sense of community and learning effectiveness in a hybrid learning environment. Interactive Learning Environments, 22(4), 485-496. doi:10.1080/10494820.2012.680971

Brown, Michael Geoffrey. (2016). Blended instructional practice: A review of the empirical literature on instructors' adoption and use of online tools in face-to-face teaching. Internet and Higher Education, 31, 1-10.

The review focuses on both external and internal involved in adopting blended teaching techniques in the classroom. Among the outside impacts were innovation accessibility, stability, and convenience. Furthermore, educators that had more noteworthy research or scholastic workloads were less likely to develop blended instructional methods.

Couros, G. (2015). The innovator's mindset: Empower learning, unleash talent, and lead a culture of creativity. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.

The Innovator's Mindset is a great book that focuses on authentic teaching and learning and how we can encourage our students to be creative. It pushes technology integration into focus. Couros stresses that the changes that we're making in our teaching are not about the technology, although they involve technology. The changes are about how people learn and how the types of things that they need to learn are different.

Stockwell, B., Stockwell, M., Cennamo, M., and Jiang, E. (2015). Blended Learning Improves Science Education. Cell. Vol 162, pp 933-936.
This is a study that compared blended learning and lecture training in an undergraduate biochemistry class. They examined four modes of learning: video, textbook, lecture, and problem-solving.The same instructor taught the blended courses and the lecture courses. In the blended versions, students watched videos on the class content prior to attending class; in the classroom, students either listened to lecture or engaged in student problem-solving in class. In the non-blended version of the class, students were assigned textbook chapters to read before class, then attended a lecture where problems were explained by the instructor or engaged in student problem-solving. All four versions of the class achieved similar satisfaction ratings, but there were differences in attendance and grasp of the material. Students who took the blended learning had a higher attendance than those who didn't.

Eachempati, P., Kumar, K. K., & Sumanth, K. N. (2016). Blended learning for reinforcing dental pharmacology in the clinical years: A qualitative analysis. Indian Journal of Pharmacology, 48S25-S28. doi:10.4103/0253-7613.193315

This study aimed to show that blended learning can be successfully implemented in a dental pharmacology class. Student survey results were positive for merits of blended learning, skills in writing prescriptions for oral diseases, dosages of drugs, and their identification of their own strengths and weaknesses in understanding the material. Some of the comments noted that it was difficult to concentrate during lecture courses, lecture courses can be boring and exhaustive, the blended course was more flexible, gave them the ability to repeat content as needed, and was more fun and interesting.
Hope it's helpful!

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15 hours ago

Megon Smith

Sharing:) Thanks to all!

COLLAPSE

Hey,

First of all, I feel like I need to thank everyone for their discussions.  I have collected a lot of great resources from you, my peers, on blended learning.  My innovation plan focuses on blended learning in social studies.  The following are some resources that focus on blended learning that I am currently using for my literature review.

Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2015). Blended using disruptive innovation to improve schools (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Arnett, T. (2014, November 26). TNTP reimagines blended teaching [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.christenseninstitute.org/blog/tntp-reimagines-blended-teaching/

Jeffrey, L. M., Milne, J., Suddaby, G., & Higgins, A. (2014). Blended learning: How teachers balance the blend of online and classroom components. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 13, 121-140. Retrieved from http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol13/JITEv13ResearchP121-140Jeffrey0460.pdf

Pappas, C. (2016). Blended learning vs flipped learning: Can you tell the difference? Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/blended-learning-vs-flipped-learning-can-tell-difference

The New Media Consortium and the Consortium for School Networking. (2015). Rethinking How Schools Work Long-term impact trend: Driving ed tech adoption in k-12 education for 5 or more years. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf

The main idea of what seemed to work or to be a strength of blended learning was collaboration.  Promoting interactions among learners in elementary school will (in my opinion) prepare students for future learning in middle, high-school, and on-going learning in this 21-century.  What could have been done better is the design of the online instruction. Teachers need proper instruction, practice, and feedback in order to develop worthy online instruction.  With constant reflection from students and the teacher, this component should continue to evolve and get better.  Learning and training should continue since blended learning for most teachers is a new frontier.

Megon

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21 hours ago

Kelli Bailey

Authentic/Blended Learning

COLLAPSE

My Literature Review is about blended and authentic learning in the classroom.  I teach high school technology and work study program.  The new research that I discovered inspired me to try something new in my classroom.  It’s called “My Word” and it consists of 5 steps which are 5 slides.  The method helps students to understand a new word or concept.  Slide 1 is the title slide.  This slide can be used if a student doesn’t know a word.  Sometimes the students are too shy or embarrassed to ask a question if they don’t know the meaning of a word.  I teach graphic design and we are currently working on PhotoShop.  I created a basic template for the students to use in PowerPoint.  The slideshow should be no longer than 5 minutes.  There are no wrong presentations, everyone will collaborate and share ideas.  Students can be creative when inserting videos, images, music, links, etc.  I think this is collaboration at it’s best!

https://padlet.com/kellibailey63/mcenapngl8hw

Kandhadai, Ravi. (2015). My word - a marketing pedagogy tactic that impacts students’ authentic learning, positive emotion (self esteem), and faculty feedback - an experiential method from a practitioner turned academic. International Journal of Sales, Retailing & Marketing. 3(4), 58-64.

Another journal article about authentic online learning that I found interesting was from the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning by Sanghoon Park from the University of South Florida.  He states the pros and cons of authentic learning.  He also researched the methods of online learning through the LMS Moodle.  It was interesting to me because one of the two groups studied applies directly to my classroom.  This will help me revise my Call to Action Plan before I present it to my superintendent.  Another aspect that I found interesting was one of the courses was presented online for 8 weeks.  One thing that stresses me out in this program is the length of only 5 week courses.

Park, S. (2017). Analysis of time-on-task, behavior experiences, and performance in two online courses with different authentic learning tasks. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(2).

Blended versus traditional course delivery (Tsung and Walsh) (2016) article solidifies my belief that learners develop higher learning skills when using a blended method rather than face-to-face traditional type of lecture teaching styles.

Tseng, H., & Walsh, E. (2016). Blended versus traditional course delivery. Comparing students’ motivation, learning outcomes, and preferences. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 17(1), 43-52.

I found this journal article interesting because it confirms that blended learning will be extremely beneficial in my district because it not only promotes higher-level thinking, but also will benefit those students who are habitually absent, homebound students, and students placed in alternative education.  The study shows that students still prefer some face-to-face instruction, but also benefited from the online experience from the comfort of their home.

Saltan, F. (2016). Blended learning experience of students participating pedagogical formation program: Advantages and limitation of blended education. International Journal of Higher Education, 6(1).

My fifth article is interesting and has answered a question that I’ve pondered over the past year.  Are new teachers being taught how to teach in a blended learning environment?  Will their enthusiasm reach out to veteran teachers?  Because our district has a high turn-over rate each year, we are gaining more brand new teachers each year.  I see them struggling with discipline, but I have found that they are more tech savvy than some of our veteran teachers.  Hopefully, this research will help convince my administration to adopt my plan.  The participants in the study liked the organization style of the LMS, liked the personal learning component, and support.

Shane, K. & Farrelly, S. (2017). Using blended teaching to teach blended learning:  Lessons learned from pre-service teachers in an instructional methods course. Journal of Online Learning Research, 3(1), 5-30.

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2 days ago

Access the profile card for user: Ozlem Guneri Ozlem Guneri

BLENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

COLLAPSE

Hello Everyone!

-Here are a few resources that I found to be useful to my Literature Review on Blended Learning Model.

Arnet, T. (2016). Blended learning can help students take ownership of their learning - Christensen Institute. Retrieved from http://www.christenseninstitute.org/blog/blended-learning-can-help-students-take-ownership-of-their-learning

(Arnet,2016) points out that Blended learning’s most powerful potential benefit is how it can help educators to create an achievement-oriented culture in their classrooms. In addition, he indicates that the real magic of the Blended learning model comes not from the technology itself alone, but from the ways the technology transforms how educators engage with and motivate their students.

-Handbook of Blended Learning: Global Perspectives, Local Designs by Curtis J. Bonk and Charles R. Graham. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Handbook_of_Blended_Learning.html?id=2u2TxK06PwUC&source=kp_cover

This book is also a great resource.

It shares a lot of information about definitions of BL, current trends, and future directions of Blended Learning. It discusses why it hasn't (YET) fulfilled its promises and gives answers and designing interactive experiences for the next generation of blended learning. It focuses on the most recent practices and trends in blended learning from a global perspective and provides targeted information for specific blended learning situations.

-Moskal, P., Dziuban, C., & Hartman, J. (2013). Blended learning: A dangerous idea? Internet and Higher Education, 18, 15–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2012.12.001

Moskal, Dzibuan & Hartman (2013) The authors conducted research on Blended learning and make the case that implementation of a successful blended learning program requires alignment of institutional, faculty, and student goals.  The evolution of blended learning at the University of Central Florida is used as a model and research collected over sixteen years illustrates that with proper support and planning. They point out that blended learning has several pros such as reducing the workload of faculty members, leading the way for courses have an innovative strategy, operative participation of learners and rich learning results

-Young, J. R. (2002). Hybrid teaching seeks to end the divide between traditional and online instruction. The Chronicles of Higher Education, 48(28). http://chronicle.com/article/Hybrid-Teaching-Seeks-to/18487

In this article, Young (2002) discussed the impact of Blended learning and he concluded that Blended learning model is the best and only one of its kind trend ever in higher education and that blended courses given in higher education will establish 80-90% of all in near future. The growth of online learning in the K–12 sectors is occurring both remotely through virtual schools and on campuses through blended learning.

-Staker, H., & Innosight, I. (2011). The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning: Profiles of Emerging Models. Retrieved from

http://www.innosightinstitute.org/innosight/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/The-Rise-of-K-12-Blended-Learning.pdf

This research outlines 40 organizations that have blended or have plans to blend online learning with brick-and-mortar classrooms. These represent a range of operators, including state virtual schools, charter management organizations, individual charter schools, independent schools, districts, and private entities.The author emphasizes on Self-Blend learning which includes any time students take no less than one courses online to supplement their traditional school’s inventory. (Staker,H ,2011).

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3 days ago

Angela Snyder

Literature Review 2.0

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I want to preface this annotated bibliography by saying I work at an IB PYP school, and we are very much focused on what the rest of the world is doing. We want our students to be globally-minded and culturally aware. Every day, we embed other cultures and parts of the world into our lessons and we make comparisons, learn about diversity, etc. Therefore, many of these sources I’ve gathered come from studies in other parts of the world because I thought they’d be very interesting and would allow my colleagues/administration to make connections. J

My innovation plan focuses on shifting the way educators use technology in our school. My goal is to implement blended learning in my classroom and invite my fellow teachers to join me on this adventure. However, even though I am a primary teacher, many of my sources cover high school or college age students because I wanted to broaden the scope and show other teachers that starting this initiative now will help the students to be more successful in the long run! This is the way our world is going!

I believe these resources really give me, and others, a bigger picture in terms of blended learning and its impact on education – all over the world. I continue to look more into these ideas moving forward.

The consensus, based on what I’ve read, is that some issues are: teachers’ technological abilities, students facing technical difficulties, availability of technology, and educator buy-in. Many things worked though; students enjoy the model, they retain more, grades and levels of understanding increase, students are able to move at their own pace since work is differentiated, lessons are enhanced, educators have more time to work one-on-one or in small groups with the students. Also, students can get more feedback with this model. I am applying all of these ideas in my plan and making some revisions in order to limit the number of roadblocks I face.

Alzahrani, M. (2017). The developments of ICT and the need for blended learning in

Saudi Arabia. Journal of Education and Practice, vol. 8. Retrieved from

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1139080

This article focuses on staff in a Saudi Arabian university where ICT is prevalent. The authors take a close look at the learning environment and what is effective, what needs work, and how it can improve there. The study hones in on ICT and its developments in higher education in the country. Explored in this article is the amount of available ICT, ICT training, and how ICT is used. It is apparent that not all educators have the same skills in this area and are therefore not using the technological devices in the same, or most efficient, way. Pedagogy in the Saudi university is also a focus on this article.

Hu, X., Lang Quek,C., & Wang, Q. (2017). Designing and improving a blended synchronous learning

environment: An educational design research. International Review of Research in Open and

Distributed Learning, vol. 18. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1142285

The authors of this piece took a closer look at the blended learning environment as it pertains to graduate students. There are two modes of instruction in this study, both in person and online, occurring simultaneously. This article presents the purpose of this type of learning environment, how it was designed, and also, how it is implemented in this type of setting. The authors reviewed both the positive and negative aspects of this type of learning and the challenges that were faced in the classroom.

Mello, R., Oliveira, E., & Ribeiro, A. (2017). Building a virtual learning environment to foster blended

learning experiences in an institute of application in Brazil. Open Praxis, vol. 9. Retrieved from

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1142911

This source, similar to the one above, focuses on the combination of face-to-face interaction in conjunction with online learning. The study analyzes how an institute in Brazil implements this type of blended learning environment and its impact on student learning. This institute educates people from the elementary level through the post graduate level which I found very interesting. Student-centered learning is the focus at this institute and the authors examine how the participants collaborate and interact with one another. Virtual learning is an integral part of this particular classroom setting as well.

Rivera, J. (2017). The blended learning environment: A viable alternative for special needs

students. Journal of Education and Training Studies, vol. 5. Retrieved from

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1125804

The authors of this source evaluated the traditional classroom setting and its current fitness to effectively educate all learners, including those with special needs. This article explains how education has evolved over recent years and it looks at the use of technological devices in education in addition to other resources that can be used to engage and motivate all students, if used properly. Both general and special educators engage with students with varying abilities and strengths, and this piece examines the learning experience using the blended model. The authors explain that the blended classroom may help more teachers to achieve their goals, even those who are identified as special needs.

Yağci, M. (2017). A web-based blended learning environment for programming languages: Students’

opinions. Journal of Education and Training Studies, vol. 5. Retrieved from

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1133846

The study reviews which components of a learning environment affect student effort and motivation; this has a direct impact on student learning and success. The authors explore both the positive and negative pieces of the learning process  by speaking directly to students and gathering their opinions. This particular article focuses on a computer course where students learn about programming both in person and on the web. Two different learning methods were combined to create this blended learning environment and the authors collected data over twelve weeks. I thought this was very informative and different as it took answers straight from the students.

I am still looking through more sources and plan on including more primary based ones as well, but wanted to take a comprehensive look J I already have a lot of primary focused articles from my first literature review.

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5 days ago

Bridget Gallagher

Collaboration Station :)

COLLAPSE

Boccella, K. (2015). In Spring City, Pa., Hybrid Learning Sends Test Scores Soaring. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved from http://www.govtech.com/education/In-Spring-City-Pa-Hybrid-Learning-Sends-Test-Scores-Soaring.html

This school based in Spring City, PA, have seen positive results with a hybrid learning environment. With this style of learning, students rotate between stations, allowing teachers to work with small groups and individual students.  The test scores have improved by 24 percent in math, 20 points in reading, and 27 points in science.

LOVE this one...the connections between our new language and old is an important one. Hybrid, blended, ICT--they all mean the same thing, when we are utilizing what we already knew. The other connection between small group learning and Guided reading is important and speaks to this idea of connecting the old with the new again. Tracy Pompei  *****

Hochleitner, D., &  Lautzenheiser, T., (2014, January). How one district is reinventing its classrooms. Blended Learning in DC Public Schools, 3-4. Retrieved from https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/-blended-learning-in-dc-public-schools_084713921628.pdf

This case study shows how one district in DC public schools is using blended learning to make improvements.  This documents struggles that these schools had with initial implementation, and funding.  The primary model used was station rotations, however, many schools were included in this study, showing how their campus implemented blended learning.
***** Excellent Resource!!! Tracy Pompei The only problem with this resource is that it was published in 2014 and that it has TOO much information that is useful. This was a large-scale project, as was the practice in 2012, therfore it took a businesslike model to move the organization synchronously and systematically.

Kellerer, E., Werth, E., & Werth, L. (2013, October). Northwest Nazarene University, Transforming K-12 rural education through blended learning. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED561276.pdf

This study documents the impact blended learning throughout the rural state of Idaho during 2013. The study documents use of blended learning, academic achievement, student engagement, communication, and the impact on teaching.  The results showed gains in all areas, each increasing by various percentages.

Paulson, A. (2014). Blended learning revolution: Tech meets tradition in the classroom. The Christian Science Monitor, 1-3. Retrieved from https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2014/0420/Blended-learning-revolution-Tech-meets-tradition-in-the-classroom

Summit Shasta high school has developed a blended model in their school, which has provided increased happiness, and improved test scores.  This model has allowed personalization for students, allowing teachers to work with students in smaller groups, and work with students that are struggling with concepts.  This model has allows students to work at all different levels, at their own pace, to move forward, or catch up subjects.

Wright, C. (2016). Bill would allow Florida students to advance at their own pace. Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved from http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/bill-would-allow-florida-students-to-advance-at-their-own-pace/2261040

This is a program that was piloted in Florida allow students to have more personalized learning. The idea behind providing personalization allows students to work at their own pace, work on credit recovering, or advancement and allows teachers to focus on students specific deficiencies.

The research shows that despite obstacles, many schools are seeing huge improvements when properly implementing blended learning.  Schools are working towards finding ways to personalize students learning in an engaging way.  When using a blended learning model, teachers are able to work on student’s deficiencies in smaller groups or one-on-one.  Teachers no longer have to stick to teaching to the middle of the classroom, and students can advance through a course quickly or work at their own pace.

It is important for future studies specifically outlining how schools can create a model to provide personalization tailored to that specific student.  I have seen much more personalization in the last few years, but not to the level of students working on completely different concepts.  Generally, the class is working on the same topic, and students are working on different levels of those topics.  In addition, it would be significant to see a comparison of different models and software selected.  It would be beneficial to have an unbiased study, for teachers to rely on when developing courses.

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3 days ago

Kelly Joyce

Blending the night away...

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The focus of my literature review is blended learning specifically in the foreign language course so some of my favorite findings are rather specific to that topic and would not really benefit anyone else.  So I choose to put 4 studies here that are more generic in the area of blended learning and I found them to offer good insights.  Enjoy and best of luck in your many hours of reading and writing! :)

Çimen, Ali & Yılmaz, M.Betul. (2017). How Should We Blend? The Impact of Blending Social Networks on High School Students’ Achievement and Social Networking Behaviors. TED EĞİTİM VE BİLİM. 42. . 10.15390/EB.2017.7190.

The authors studied over 100 students to find out how using social networks in the classroom affected their engagement and their achievement.  They found that those who were required to participate (the teacher was checking and also contributing) did significantly better than the students who only used it as an optional enrichment.  However those students achieved better results than the students who did not use any social networks at all and only had the traditional face-to-face class environment.  While using it as a supplement was found to be best, any type of usage seems to offer benefits.  This study seems to show that the more we can help students to connect in ways that are comfortable and meaningful to them, the more invested they will become and the more time they will spend outside of class on the material.

Lederman, D. (2017, July 26). The research clues to what works in blended learning. Retrieved October 29, 2017, from https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/07/26/researchs-clues-what-works-blended-learning

This study gives some good warnings as well as some tangible steps as to what works and what does not.  They remind us that simply using technology doesn’t improve student’s learning, but that teachers need to be revamping what they are teaching as well as how they are teaching it.  They also found that technology that provides too much scaffolding can actually negatively impact students.  Instead based on their research they recommend using digital tools that provide more flexibility for the students in the classroom, allowing for freedom of choice; tools that provide opportunities for them to explore, and also allow for active problem solving.  They suggest that teachers start with the problem they want to solve, then choose technology that will be specific for each targeted group of students; finally they emphasize the need for lots of support and training for the implementation of blended to be effective.

Carloni, G. (2013). Content and Language Integrated Learning: A Blended Model in Higher Education. International Journal Of Technology, Knowledge & Society, 9(4), 61-71.

This study describes all of the ways that the University of Urbino in Italy used online resources to create a pretty amazing CLIL center and courses. (Content and Language Integrated Learning).  They provided training, methodology  and used only free apps and sites to create lots of resources in their sCLIL blended learning model.  The goal was to promote multilingualism (in this case English) by catering to today’s digital-age learners.  The study found that online tasks did indeed promote both content as well as language learning.  Their model is an effective use of educational technology and I feel I can learn a lot from how they went about creating this blended program since my goal is also multilingualism through blended learning.

Baepler, P., Walker, J., & Driessen, M. (2014). Its not about seat time: Blending, flipping, and efficiency in active learning classrooms. Computers & Education,78, 227-236. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2014.06.006

Although this article looks at college kids and doesn’t deal with languages - my focus - it was interesting in that it studied two classrooms side by side - one was blended (active learning, blended and flipped) compared to the traditional lecture style class.  They used videos and online materials to flip the lectures.  It found that students did just as well if not better ( some times much better) in the active learning class and they also had a better perception of the learning environment.  The study makes the argument that based on the results, active learning is pedagogically superior to traditional teacher-centered classes, proving to be a more efficient use of space (even though they seat fewer students per square foot).

Happy research and discovery and thank you for all the amazing resources everyone has been sharing!

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5 hours ago

Access the profile card for user: Stacey Clark Stacey Clark

Innovative Design Thinking for Moms

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The point of my literature review is to strengthen both my knowledge of my subject matter and to understand what is currently going on with regard to providing services to my at risk group.  As much as I dreaded doing this, putting together a new AB has really helped me so much.  I ‘ve learned a great deal about what it takes to teach  design thinking to adults and children. I’ve also learned about ways to engage adult learners in ICT.  Before this project, I really thought the biggest problem with low-income mothers being able to gain education and 21st century skills was a lack of access, but in one of my studies I learned that access is not the same thing as availability and that access is more about learning and learning how to learn.  The good news it is that there just may be a lot of availability and my job will be to help my students access what is available through learning.  I plan to use my resources to make the case that holistic poverty exists and that Design Thinking, taught in a mobile learning environment can help low-income single mothers to gaiin 21st century skills and become holistically empowered. See some of my referenced studies below.

Bair, R. A., & Stafford, T. (2016). Connected and ubiquitous: a discussion of two theories that impact future learning applications. Tech Trends Vol. 60, 129-135.

Bair and Stafford (2016) present an introduction to two different approaches to mobile or m-learning, that when combined provide learners with, a highly accessible integrated learning method, a multimedia ready content creation method and an extremely collaborative problem solving network.  Bair and Stafford point out that together, Mayer’s 1997 Multimedia Learning Theory is about creating information for learning and requires learners to select, organize and integrate information into their knowledge banks and  Connective Learning Theory which espouses the use of technology to drive participation in learning networks formed to solve problems in different ways, allows instructional designers to design learning environments that are free formed and ripe for facilitating and promoting implicit learning experiences. Bair and Stafford ran a case study on a small business in Florida to test the viability of the combined effects of Multimedia Learning Theory and Connective Learning Theory in instructional design for the company’s leadership training. During a downturn in the economy, the business was forced to cut back both staff and overhead costs. To rebuild and remain relevant in their industry they are using m-learning to stay connected to their field employees as well as their clients. M-learning made it possible for employees to get the training they needed without needing to leave the field and the company was able to easily build relationships with customers and expand their brand marketing. By using mobile apps for creating content like podcasts, videos and pictures both instructional designers and students have the ability to creatively integrate knowledge and by forming m-learning communities, both group can expand the learning and build on new areas of information and knowledge.

Blank, R. M. (2007). Improving the safety net for single mothers who face serious barriers to work. Future of Children, v17 n2 , 183-197.

Blank (2007), did research on the barriers low-income single mothers in the late 90s, faced when being pushed into the workforce when they were not mentally, physically or financially prepared for employment. Blank brings attention to the fact that during that time many welfare programs, terminated benefits to mothers prematurely based on the mother getting a job.  However, as Blank points out, many of the mothers were not mentally, physically or even financially capable of holding a job and eventually found themselves with no job, income or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) benefits.  When Blank wrote her paper in 2007, she estimated that about 2.2 million low-income single mothers were unemployed and that they were the caregivers of about 4 million children. As a remedy, Blank proposed a 2 billion dollar add-on to TANF to supplement the mother’s income until she can find a good paying job.

Callander, E. J., Schofield, D. J., & Shrestha, R. (2012). Towards a holistic understanding of poverty: A new multidimensional measure of poverty for Australia. Health Sociology Review: The Journal of the Health Section of the Australian Sociological Association, Vol. 21, No. 2, 141-155.

Callander, Schofield and Shrestha (2012), based on a review of published economic, human capital and equity distribution documentations, identified a set of multi-dimensional causes of poverty that extend beyond an individual’s ability to financially live up to what is considered to be a living standard in Australia. Beyond financial means, the researchers call out health and education as two areas individuals need help with, in order to function well within today’s society. Furthermore, the researcher’s report that health and education are not included in typical measures of poverty. The researchers warn that Australia must take a holistic look at poverty by including both education and health to the overall measure of poverty if they are increase the standards of living for the poor.

Coleman, M. C. (2016). Design thinking and the school library. Knowledge Quest Vol. 44 No 5, 62-68.

Coleman (2016) a librarian at an elementary school put Design Thinking DT to work as an experiment in enriching learning through reading for a first grade class.  Coleman’s DT program lasted 12 weeks and focused the students on building a better house for the Three Little Pigs, based on the story, the Three Little Pigs. Coleman points out that the object of design thinking is to empathize with your audience or group deeply enough that you are able to develop solutions to their problems in the way that best fits them. When Coleman, got the children involved in the empathize step of DT, she realizes that the children were connecting with the characters in the story on a much deeper level, based on their questions and their stated observations. Coleman found that using the DT process brought a new depth to the learning experience for the children and the teachers. The only issue Coleman reports was the time allotted in any one sitting was not long enough because once the children were engaged they wanted to continue and a break in engagement she believed may have cost them valuable learning time. For future DT learning projects Coleman suggested aligning the timing with the teachers to insure maximum engagement for the students. Giving the adult students a relevant project to work on based on a character or story they think they know already should help to introduce them to DT and engage them in applying the steps. Once students are engaged, the last thing a teacher wants to do is disengage them, so time must be a top tier consideration.

Commission on Information and Communications Technology. (2009). eSkwela: Community-based e-learning centers for out-of-school youth and adults, Philippines - Case Study. Bankok: UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education.

Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) (2009), studied eSkwela, a project bringing access to Information Communication Technology (ICT) to out-of-school youth and adults, to help them complete their basic education.  The CICT reports that there are roughly 17 million Philippinos, who have not completed their basic education.  The study states that the eSwela project seeks to tackle this issue by providing access to educational opportunities for out-of-school youth and adults who would like to finish their basic education in community based e-learning centers, which were established around the country. CICT described the centers as, venues where the individuals can learn new skills, review exams and to prepare for a formal education. The program also aims to help out-of-school youth and adults to successfully enter the global knowledge-based economy and close a widening knowledge gap. The CICT found that the program was very good at communicating with all of it’s stake holders, but needed help with working out the timely distribution of funding from the government, to keep the internet access on. They also reported needing better professional development for the facilitators. Having a good PD program in place is central to the overall success of a learning based program, therefore it is important to note that adherence to the Five Principles of Professional Development  (Gulamhussein, 2013)  is a must.

Dill, B. T. (1998). A better life for me and my children: Low-income single mothers' struggle for self-sufficiency in the rural South. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Vol 29(2), 419-428.

Dill (1998), researched the impact of poverty on low-income single mothers who worked, but at some point had relied on welfare. Moreover, Dill found that African-American low-income single mothers believed that education was the best way to achieve both goals and economic empowerment. She also reports that education helped those mothers to get the type of employment they needed. This study did a great job of calling out the need for low-income single mothers to gain access to an education in order to set and reach personal and professional goals. However, Dill also found that there was a great need for access to higher education programs that catered to this group.  Based on the authors finding, by providing access to education, more low-income single mothers will be able to gain the education th

HIll, K. L. (2011). Single mothers - How are they doing. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communication and Conflict Vol. 15 No.1, 1-10.

Hill (2011), reviewed literature to determine the overall quality of life for single mothers.  Based on Hill’s research, there were about 13.7 million single parents and of them 84% were single mothers. She found that when a single mother tries to gain employment with a high-school diploma or less, it is very difficult for them to do so making almost a sure thing that they will end up below the financial poverty level. Hill’s research also found higher incidents of child abuse, psychiatric problems and lower pay rates than married mothers. Hill also found that single mothering can have adverse effects on her children, from behavior issues and health problems at school to social stereotyping by other parents. Hill’s review aptly combines literature that paints a picture of lack and loss for single mothers and their children.  Hills’ subjects were primarily divorced women and their children. Hills research expands the needs and experiences of the low-income single mother group and provides a new dynamic in understanding how some single mothers became both single and low-income. This idea that single mothers are not all the same and have diverse backgrounds is important when trying to empathize with them as a group. This means that as a group they have many subgroups that must be considered when trying to provide holistic services to them.

Kanji, G. K., & Chopra, P. K. (2007). Poverty as a system: Human contestability approach to poverty measurement. Journal of Applied Statistics Vol. 34, No. 9, 1135–1158.

Kanji  and Chopra (2007), provide and in-depth review of the history surrounding the widely accepted definitions and eradication concepts for poverty, starting with Rowntree’s 1901 Budget standards approach, to the 2002 Millennium Summit presented by the United Nations where over a hundred countries made an unachievable commitment to reduce poverty by 50% world-wide by the year 2015. Kanji  and Chopra explain that when trying to evaluate poverty as a measure,  there are two main measures, the first is Head Count Ratio, which counts the number of people below the poverty line and compares that count to the number of people in the population. This ratio only serves to give the number of people in poverty, but no idea of the depth of their poverty. The other they explain is  Income Gap Ratio, and it does report the depth of poverty but not the number of people experiencing poverty.  There are other modes of measure, however all fall short of providing a head count  and intencity level for people in poverty.  Kanji  and Chopra present their own model of poverty accessment which is based on measuring the contestability of individuals in a population; the higher the contestability rate, the lower the poverty and vice-versa. Kanji  and Chopra blame the lack of contestability on a group of four variables: Physical Ability, Intellectual Ability, Human Potentiality and Socio-economic Activity, furthermore they posit that it is social systems that dictate how well individuals glean any of the components of contestability. In the end what they found was that more than half of the people in their test social systems were receiveing lack luster support from those systems.

Martin, D. G. (2015). The UN’s sustainable development goals: Global schizophrenia. Global Research.

Martin (2015), helps to define the multi-dimensional levels and sources of poverty world-wide by giving a detailed review of the United Nation’s (UN) 2008 thru 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and where they fell short, as well a careful review of the UN’s Sustaining Development Goals which began in 2015.  Martin points out that the MGD’s focused on eradicating poverty world-wide, but failed to take into consideration poverty’s root causes, as well as issues like: gender inequality, human rights and economic development.  Martin shares however, that in contrast, the new SDGs do take a more holistic approach to the overall development goals, this time around including: economic growth, health and well-being, education, work opportunities and clean healthful environments for all humans.

Salinas-Amescua, B. (2007). Adult instructors’ perceptions on ICT and diffusion practices: implications for equity of access. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology Vol. 33(2) Spring, 1-18.

Salinas-Amescua (2007), in search of the reasons low-income adults continue to be left out of the ICT boon, the author looks closely at potential confounds.  Her finding were that world-wide adults lacked access to ICT, even though initiatives were funded and reported to make ICT available for free.  Her assessment of the issue is that    technology availability is not the only determinant of access, and she lays out the argument that the ability to effectively use ICT is the main determine the access.   Salinas-Amescua, points out that technology training is not enough to spark interest in adults. Adults need to learn about technology’s relevance to their lives and about how it helps them to meet their real life needs.  Salinas-Amescua was able to find the social and cultural confounds to ICT access and urges the training of ICT facilitators in adult learning principles. Salinas-Amescua, shines a bright light on the idea that available is not the same thing as access. Adult educators must always remember to allow adult learners to adopt and adapt the new learning to their own lives and to help them find the relevance. Programs aiming to arm Low-income single mothers with ICT skills should first help the mothers to figure out how ICT will help them in their lives and then make sure that learning remains relevant to them.

Watson, A. D. (2015). Desing thinking for life. Art Education, 12-18.

Watson (2015) an AP art teacher in an urban high school in Fairfax County, Virginia teaches art in a Design Thinking DT framework to test the value of DT within the overall live of his students. Watson’s students are from diverse cultural backgrounds but most are low-income. When teaching DT, Watson does not tell his students he is teaching them a process, he simply leads them in the process to see how it will impact their creations, problem solving, critical thinking and ability to empathize with audiences and each other. Watson acknowledges that there are many versions of the DT and for his students he used Nick DiGiorgio’s FabLab 2012 STEM version. Watson explained the process as Ask, Imagine, Design, Build,Evaluate, Refine, and Share. Though the process is a good way for students to narrow in on problems, most indicated that some problems are not precise enough to state in a terse, solve-ready manner. One thing DT did do was help a student work toward getting unstuck which is the essence of DT. Watson and his students were able to connect the dots between DT and 21st century skills (problem-solving, creativity, communication and collaboration) and their ability to lead to life-long learning. Allowing the students to understand the individual steps in the process did create some hesitation for them as artist, they don’t like being process driven, however they were all able to experience the value of using DT in other areas of their lives. By Watson teaching his students the skills without telling them it was a specific process, it seemed to drive their overall acceptance of DT once the students knew they were learning a process. This might be a good way to introduce DT and allow student to see the outcomes before bogging them down with a whole acronym to plow through.

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2 hours ago

Access the profile card for user: Michelle Little Michelle Little

RE: Innovative Design Thinking for Moms

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I agree, learning is all about learning how to learn for teachers and students. After teaching in a 1:1 district for years, I quickly realized it's not about the access to the technology, the same kids who had lower grades still had lower grades even with all the technology in the world. As a teacher is a district that wanted to mask the issues with forced technology, it became very frustrating. I now teach in a district with all the technology, but it's up to the teacher and student. Today we had a guest speaker from LA, he is a developer and had a ton of cool things to show us. But the most important thing I took away was the need for learning how to code. He also mentioned apps are a thing of the past, so those school districts that rely on apps will need to make changes soon to stay up to date with the new advances in technology.

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Is Blended learning equalizing education in public schools? Is it finally democratizing learning for ALL learners? IDK!

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Highline Public Schools: Personalized Learning as a Pathway to Equity

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Highline Public Schools: Personalized Learning as a Pathway to Equity

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Middletown NY Race to the top grant has proven successful

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Middletown NY Race to the top grant has proven successful

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Blended Learning Won't Work Without A Strong Culture to Support It

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Blended Learning Won't Work Without A Strong Culture to Support It

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From the very people who brought us blended, Horn and Staker are now addressing the culture necessary in a successful blended learning environment. YAY

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A charted Sourcing Doc created by Kelly Joyce.

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A charted Sourcing Doc created by Kelly Joyce.

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LOVE this one. It is current and complete with varied experiences, levels, and outcomes. 

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LOVE this one. It is current and complete with varied experiences, levels, and outcomes. 

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The Foundation for Blended and Online Learning

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How is Blended Learning Working to Enhance Learning Experiences and Outcomes for Students?

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How is Blended Learning Working to Enhance Learning Experiences and Outcomes for Students?

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How many schools, countries, etc... some data to support why this method is a possible solution to the problems we face.

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Thesis: Blended learning offers us a starting point from which to launch educational initiatives that include teachers and students in the new learning methods necessary for success in a democratic, socially connected, and informational society. This model combines the power of face-to-face best practices in constructive learning with the promise of innovation through technology enhancements. School is a social situation wherein positively personal, authentic, and collective learning must be at its center. Learning is a power endowed by our creator and that means it is protected by our constitution.