There are significant findings we can take away from these cases studies. I will highlight the few I found most interesting to me.
- all five schools saw the need to adopt a laddered system of teachers (lead teachers, intervention teachers, and assistants)
- each school spent a considerable amount of time planning their model; however, the system has changed during implementation
- the packaged online learning products were often not aligned with standards which required teachers to adapt
- the technology infrastructure budgeted often had to see an increase in time and resources needed....more than expected
The study uncovered key considerations or areas of improvement that need to occur:
- better online programs
- better integration of data
- a need to form communities of practice to share information
- continued innovation will be necessary
Blended learning is still evolving and considered cutting edge by many school districts. The case studies demonstrated increased student engagement, opportunities for response to intervention, and the ability to make data driven real time decisions at times. What I consider the most important information presented in this article centered around the considerations the county should take into account before adopting this approach. It needs to be well thought out and studied or it could be disruptive in a bad way....not in a good way.
Great find, Jen! The author's definition of blended learning intrigues me, particularly the second half:
ReplyDeleteBlended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace and at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home.
I find it interesting that they say a "brick-and-mortar location away from home" and not "school." Have you found any examples of blended learning that work in another environment? I thought maybe a library, but that's about it.
I thought "brick and mortar" was a strange term too. When I googled the history of the term it seems to refer to any college, university or other type of school. I guess it is just a term that has evolved into yet another vocabulary word associated with our field. I haven't found any other environments where blended learning is used yet, but now you have me curious.
ReplyDeleteJen: What you highlighted was really interesting to me! Last school year when my co-teacher and I started the blending learning approach in our classroom, the amount of planning was considerable. However, like you mentioned, during implementation there were many changes that needed to be made. For example: we would have our rotation stations planned but then there would be a few students who didn't watch the required resources at home the night before and couldn't jump right into the rotation without watching them. This would then create confusion on which groups needed to rotate where. It got to the point that the students figured out if they didn't watch the resources at home, they could just watch it at the start of class. Again, this would create confusion and mess up the station rotations. By the end of semester one, we dropped the blended learning model.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame! That is definitely something to consider when going to a blended learning model. I worry that I will run into the same issues you did and then have to drop it. I wonder if you would need an incentive to get them to pre-watch the resources? Thanks for sharing you experience.
DeleteI am a little concerned about those who did not watch the resources at home. I'm wondering if at the elementary level immediate parent involvement might help. I'm not sure. Incentives like Mel mentioned may be possible too. I was thinking about talking to my grade level about a team Fun Friday for those who have turned in everything in time and have not had behavior concerns. It does bother me to have to offer incentives to encourage learning though! I will have to see....
DeleteIt's nice that better online programs was highlighted as a need. I feel like I want to use premade programs but I'm always worried they're going to waste time with content that's not relevant. We've used iReady the past few years and it's been extremely frustrating. They have matched the lessons to our SoLs, but the assessment piece (which we were goaled on for standard 7!) was NOT aligned with our SoLs. So the program said that my kids were below grade level but that was mostly because it was measuring them on content above what we teach. Very frustrating!
ReplyDeleteIt is so strange that the program matched the lessons to the standards, but it didn't match up the assessments to the standards. Maybe there is a future for us in designing online learning packages?
Delete