Defining blended learning and supporting teachers.

Overview
I recently finished my first year as an Instructional Technology Facilitator. Serving three elementary schools in this capacity is a wonderful and challenging experience. A small group of coworkers and I will be blogging over the next month about the ideas in Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools by Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker. We are learning how the author's ideas and research can help us improve our roles as facilitators to help teachers meet the needs of today's students.

What is Blended Learning?
It is vital to define blended learning because infrastructure and devices alone will not help students, teachers or communities. Blended learning is an integrated experience of a formal education program at a supervised location combined with online learning where the teacher designs personalized learning paths for students to demonstrate mastery of content.

Before taking on the role of an ITF, I taught 6th grade social studies for close to 10 years. My former classroom sometimes blended traditional and online methods. More often it did not. The scanner, digital camera, laptop and of course the SMART Board did not guarantee my students an integrated and personalized learning experience. These items certainly created the potential for a teacher centered classroom. Classrooms that are "technology rich" can be found throughout the United States. Indeed, Horn and Staker note an estimated $100 billion of technology infrastructure was invested into U.S. schools over the last three decades.

To create true blended learning the best place to start is with the instruction, not the technology. The student should be at the center of every decision regarding instruction. In Union County, The Classroom of Tomorrow program is exploring how a 21st century classroom can support today's diverse student population. The teachers in these classrooms have received the latest available training while the classrooms were updated to an environment that promotes collaboration. The furniture is modular to easily create groups and the two wall sized whiteboards allow for wonderful student and teacher creation and exploration. Computers are provided for each student to use similar to what is provided to other students in each school.

It's About the Students. 
There are certain things that need to be done to help support teachers. This initial list will be something to reflect on as the book study progresses into later chapters.

1. Don't be a tool. Professional development should reflect the pedagogy of a blended classroom. The most effective way to facilitate teachers redefining their craft is to lead by example. Teachers need opportunities to explore and experiment with new tools. Context provides the relevance needed to create a more meaningful experience. For example, UCPS will be using Canvas as the LMS for teachers. Our department will be using Canvas to deliver professional development content because it's important to model the system first. Over time, teachers can expect to become more comfortable as users of Canvas while learning new skills at the same time for classroom use. Introducing the course management side of Canvas later in the school year will have more context because of this prior knowledge. Facilitating and teaching by example should increase the likelihood of technology integration but one major challenge remains. Teachers often share their concern that they don't have the time for learning new things about technology despite a desire to do so. When these opportunities arise, my strategy will be to offer my support as a visiting teacher.

Copyright @edappadvice and @sylviaduckworth

2. Start at the shallow end. Providing ongoing support to teachers is another important aspect to developing a blended learning culture. This illustration of the SAMR model by Peter Maxwell and Sylvia Duckworth is useful for encouraging teachers to reflect as they plan their instruction. Some content will lend itself quickly to modification and redefinition. For example, teachers could use Google Maps to create an annotated map of information such as historical or weather related events. This type of technology use for a student assignment is more personal because of the availibility of resources and the options for customizing the map itself. Other content areas such as Reading Workshop may start with enhancements before possible transformations can be considered. The process of transforming instruction into personalized learning will always have unexpected moments. For these situations, it is worthwhile to have a back up plan and be willing to reflect and try again tomorrow.

3. Be student data driven. Moodle and Google Forms are useful for administering quizzes. The ease of self grading a quiz through Moodle or using Flubaroo makes it so easy to grade student work. However, opportunites are being missed if the data is only utilized as a subsitution for calculating grades by hand. The data collected from one activity should be used to create the learning for the following day's lesson. Students will likely respond positively to knowing that they will be expected to apply the previous day's concepts and correct misunderstandings. Data driven instruction has great potential when designed around the student. However, there is a greater benefit as well. Teachers could be more available to bond with their students to build lasting, positive relationships. The Classroom of Tomorrow teachers I've worked with show this to be true. The data and project driven nature of the classroom created a culture where the students where independent and motivated. This classroom culture allowed the teachers to devote individual time to meet student needs.

Feel free to leave a comment below with your ideas for blended learning.