Blended Learning

So what is blended learning?

According to Stacy Hawthorne (@StacyHaw), in a blended learning model, students must have some control over time, place, path, or pace. My Educational Technology course at the University of Akron is really good at giving the students control over their learning. Because this course is mostly online, I have control over the time, place, path, and pace of our education. I am able to choose what time of day or night I want to engage with the course material. The only limitation on where I can engage with the course material is whether or not there is a wifi signal. And I have a choice of the path I want my learning to take. Do I want to work on week 3 during week 1? Or week 6 on week 1? I do get some of a choice over the pace of the course too. Do I want to work on week 1, 2, and 3 all during week 1? Unfortunately some of the pace of the course it predetermined because of the length of the instructional videos, so I really liked the weeks where there were many short videos instead of a few very long ones. One of these really long videos that I did not like was about blended learing in medina city schools. You can watch it in the link, but in my opinion this video was too long and hard to follow. I tried to pay attention because it was about schools in my area, but I just wasn't able to stay focused and had to restart the video numerous times because it would not allow me to fastforward or rewind.

Stacy describes the blended learning model as more than just integrating technology into the classroom. With my Ed Tech course our classroom was online. We met one day a week for the first three weeks, and those days acted as a tutorial for the course where we were able to ask questions face-to-face. The majority of the learning was done online and I really enjoyed that aspect. As this was an introductory course to technology in education my teacher, Jeremy Brueck (@brueckj23), had what he called an innovation lab that met once a week on the same day our class used to meet where his students could come in and ask questions they might have. Because this was my first online course, I found this to be a really good saftey net. I feel that this course was an excellent example of the enriched virtual model of blended learning. If you are curious about the different blended learning models, below is the blended learning model Stacy used in her presentation.

To have a class be truely blended, it must be on the continuiuum of direct instruction and online learning and incorporate at least one of the different learning models. 

• The Rotation model contains four different rotation models. The station rotation model is very similar to the stations you experianced in elementary school. It typically has three stations; small group teacher lead instruction; computer based work; and peer colaborative group work. 
• The lab rotation model is similar to going to the distance learing lab, however it occurs on a regular basis, possibly a few days a week. But the main idea is that students leave the tradional classroom to learn in a different environment. 
• The flipped classroom model works in such a way that the instructional video lecture is watched at home and the practice work that would be traditionally considered homework would be completed in school with the help of the teacher. 
• And in the individual rotation model each student decides based on their understanding of the material when they move on to the next station. 

The other three models move closer to online learning. 

• In the Flex model the student gets a choice in what courses they take and is essentially an online course in a structured environment. 
• The Self Blended model is when a student takes more control of their education by taking outside courses, usually in an area of interest, that are not required for graduation. 
• And the Enriched Virtual model is closely related to online schooling. 

Without district support, according to Stacy, the most common model you will see is the station rotation model. The next most likely model in this scenario would be the flipped classroom model, and it would be a teacher on their own trying to implement this blended learning model. And the last style you could possibly see is the self blend model because incorporating outside learning would be at the students discretion.

Blended learning doesn't have to be all or nothing, and doesn't have to fit into just one definition. How blended you make a course is based upon the strenght of the teacher, the culture of the community and the school, and the content area. But over all blende learning is personal to each teacher and class. What makes a blended learning environment different than a technology rich classroom is how you incorporate collected data from the online learning into your teaching and adjust your lesson plans accordingly. 

Blending can be broken down into the below levels and your class can be blended on a sliding scale for each level and changed from lesson to lesson. 

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning, iNACOL, has created a teacher compentency framework for blended learning which you can download here. This will give you the mindsets, qualities, adaptive skills, and technical skills they believe to be most important for teacher who want to make their classroom a blended learning environment. Below is a quick break down of this framework. 

• Mindsets- core values or beliefs that guide thinking, behaviors, and actions that align with goals of educational change and mission. 
• These mindsets are: new vision for teaching and learning; orientation towards change and improvement.
• Qualities- personal characteristics and patterns of behavior that help an educator make the transition to new ways of teaching and learning, through coaching, encouraging, and reinforcing. 
• These qualities are: grit; transparency; collaboration.
• Adaptive Skills- generalizable skills that apply across roles and content areas. These skills include things like collaboration and problem solving. Adaptive skills help individuals tackle new tasks or navigate unfamiliar situations. These skills are complex, but can be mastered through modeling, coaching, and reflective practice. 
• These adaptive skills are: reflection; continuous improvement and innovation; communication. 
• Technical Skills- include the ability to use data to inform and drive effective instructional strategies while creating an environment that meets the needs of learners in both the face-to-face and online environmnets. Teachers are also able to demonstrate the techincal troubleshooting competencies in order to support students in the blended encironment. 
• These technical skills are: data practices; instructional strategies; management of blended learning experience; instructional tools. 

It is a great idea to use this framework as a self assessment tool. But blended learning is also a disruptive innovation, it takes the old comfortable system and turns it on its head. Below is an interesting inforgraphic that really provokes some thought, and if you can't read it here you can try this link.

Created by Knewton

Blended learing is about more than simply using technology in the classroom, its about using that technology to gather information, apply it, and radically improve students' learning environments.