Engaging Online Assignments Not Another Brick In The Wall

The online pieces to your Blended Learning lessons should cary all the personality and excitement that your face to face pieces have.  Online learning portions shouldn't simply be another brick in the wall of a boring virtual structure (see what I did there?!).

One of the difficulties in designing blended learning experiences has to do with your attitude.

Maybe I should say, it has to do more with your personality and how you project that personality into a virtual or online environment.

Since helping to develop Region 11's Blended Learning Academy with Shelly Shaw and teaching some hybrid college government courses on the side, I have wrestled with the concept of portraying my dry, but lovable, personality online.

In a face to face environment, it's easy.  I just tell all of my old jokes always careful to keep timing in mind.  I read my audience to see how far I can take my sarcasm.  I insert analogies or metaphors for the concepts that need scaffolding.  I make sure my body language is supporting the atmosphere, whether it be serious or joking.  Etc, etc, etc.

In blended learning, however, you're not always there when the student is working on your assignment.  If you drop in a joke or sarcastic remark in an assignment like a discussion post, students will not hear your tone or see the body language that you might have been attempting to deliver.  Misunderstandings or, worse, missed punch lines may occur.

So we have a choice, either have a robotic online environment and risk disengaging students at home OR  find a way to convey our classroom culture and our personalities in a way that translates effectively online.

If you simply want to have a robotic online environment, stop here.  You have no need for the rest of this post.

Ok, glad they're gone.

Robotic online environments can be said to be 2D.  Flat might be another word.

In our efforts to create a deeper online experience, a 3D one, we have to really dig into our emotive experiences in the classroom and try to find ways to replicate those experiences online.  That is not to say that telling the same joke in the same way will suffice.

It means we have to find ways to design learning in a way that our personality traits might be felt or duplicated online to keep those emotional classroom connections alive.

For example, in my online discussion posts I want students to think deeply but not be threatened by the possibility of getting a "wrong" answer when they spend their time and energy on a discussion prompt.  To alleviate the tension, I look for meme's or videos that accentuate the questions prompt and ADD to the content as opposed to simply being static. unproductive, or passive side items.  I also ask opinion and value questions, but ask them to support their thinking with citations or other people who think the way they do.  There is NO right answer, but there is a right process.

When discussing federalism in my hybrid college course I ask students to dive into Federalist 51, the Federalism chapter in their textbook  and answer the question "Is federalism still relevant in today's world? Please support your opinion.".

In order to answer this question, students have to a) understand the concept of federalism b) understand what the Founders wrote about it in Federalist 51 c) understand how it works in today's world d) judge whether it is still a viable system.

That's pretty dry.

To import my personality, I don't tell a joke or a funny story.  I find a video that IMPLIES my sense of humor but also adds depth to the discussion post and the content.  In the following clip, I also ask students to explain what the clip has to do with the federalism prompt (answer: Mr. Burns is the US government and the bugs are the states... they are both selfish and interdependent which allows for a stable environment to exist, for the most part.  The door frame can be seen the US Constitution or Congress).

So the video conveys my humor, the content, and furthers the question prompt.

In many cases, asking students to make connections between their experiences and your content is good enough to carry your personality and make an assignment 3D.  Using analogies, metaphors, memes, jokes that lie within the scope of your content is the best place to start.  You can also use lensing activities in this same way.  For example, you can ask students "What would George Washington say if he were a part of this book... or listening to this conversation... or in charge of so and so?"

Creating opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding of content via interactions or reflections with you or peers is also useful.  For example, you can post a question in a Padlet and have students reply with images or videos that you leave comments on would be a great way to carry that classroom culture into the outside world.

Creating a hashtag for students to post Instagram images to would be a similar 3D experience as long as you are actively engaging with their artifacts at some point.

Even though it isn't directly your personality that is being projected, the above examples project THROUGH your personality and help develop a better online environment.  

Video Killed The Radio Star: The Buggles and Blended Learning

Sometimes small and innocuous changes in the way we do things leads to revolutions that aren't seen until they are directly on top of us.

Case in point... Go ahead, hit play and listen. :)

Especially the line "and now I understand the problems, you can see. I met your children, what did you tell them?"

  

When the Buggles, a name derivative from mixing the words bugs and The Beatles, released this video and MTv played it as their first ever video, the world was in the throws of change.  During the radio age, all that mattered was the voice and the music.  The Buggles, as implied in the album's name, "Age of Plastic," predicted that the advent of video and VCRs effectively killed the older radio stars.  Now, because of the advent of new technologies, a new generation of artists would synthesize music, technology, and aesthetics (note the oversized sunglasses are meant to portray a "bug's" eyes) to produce the NEW stars.  Stars like Madonna and Prince and stations like MTv and VH1 were now not only possible, but fated.

Video allowed the artist to fully flesh out their vision and music beyond lyrics and sounds.  Their thinking became visible.

Sure... Radio continued, but radio as the main and only medium through which music was sold and consumed was over. Eventually, MTv gave way to CDs, MP3s, and finally Spotify and Pandora.  The consumer's need for personalized access to music, when and where and how they wanted it, could not be ignored or denied.

Video killed the radio star and we ALL celebrated it.

In a very similar fashion, a better understanding of the brain, technology leaps, and the push for equity for ALL students has placed an unyielding amount of pressure on the old "sit and git" and "sage on the stage" way to teach.  I might argue that YouTube killed the old way to teach.

Notice, I did not use the word learn.  Students are learning under the old regime, but in a way that can be characterized as the "soft bigotry of low expectations" kind of way.  In "sit and git" classrooms, when students ARE inspired and excited to learn something new, unfortunately, they are likely self-medicating by turning to an instructor who personalizes their learning: YouTube.

There is a tension in many classrooms between the advancement of the personalization of learning happening all around us and the master of the content who still wants to lecture or show off what they learned about Texas History fro their 1980's college days.  In so many cases, Google and YouTube are better teachers in a fact based, low Bloom's environment.

Blended learning with its emphasis on flexibility, student empowerment, and a nod toward the outside-the-classroom world is the Buggles of today.  "Teaching" is now more about guiding students to not need us (empowerment), because in many cases they really don't need us.

In previous posts we talked about the umbrella visual's portrayal of flexibility in place, pace, path, and time as it is driven by data to create personalized learning experiences for students.  So what are the benefits?

Student Benefits:

• Ownership over their own learning goals
• Learning that happens inside and outside the classroom
• A greater reliance on peer to peer feedback and refinement practices
• An end to the view that the teacher is the "master" of the student's learning and success
• A stronger community fabric with peers and the teacher
• Greater ability to express their knowledge in a variety of ways to authentic audiences
• More retention because the learning is personally authentic 

Teacher Benefits:

• Students are better engaged and less discipline issues
• Students are afforded more leadership opportunities and are less of a discipline issue
• After the front loading of planning, more T.I.M.E.
• more time to guide
• more time to reflect
• more time to build relationships
• more time to become better at letting go
• more time seeing that investing trust in students pays off
• more time to evaluate because students are helping in the grading/evaluating
• Pride in helping to create independent learners
• Inspiration brought on by students who creatively display their knowledge
• Getting help from students in planning lessons and/or integrating technology
• A new way to breath life into old lessons
• Contributing to a skill set that will help small human beings grow up to be successful larger human beings
• Parents will see at home what you are doing in class and they will be thankful for the view

Like all things worth while, becoming a Blended Learning teacher takes time and effort.  Start off small, find what works for you and your students, and build around successes.

The difference between the song and the video Video Killed the Radio Star is a small tweak in delivery and an acknowledgment and incorporation of the new ways.  The Buggles became both radios stars and the harbingers of the demise of radio stars by moving in a new-ish direction.  They carried what worked in the old system and married it to the new system.  You can do the same and your students will thank you for it. 

What Does Data Have to Do With It?

     If you look at the blended learning visual, you'll notice that data is the handle that supports the rest of the structure of blended learning.  You might be wondering why we decided to give data such a prominent place on the image when really the accepted definitions of blended just talk about having flexibility with place, pace, path or time. 
     Let me give you an example to illustrate how data can really change the game.  Let's say I decided to use the Flipped Classroom model. I assigned my class a video to watch at home before coming to school the next day.  I offered my students flexibility in place and time by allowing them to choose when and where they will complete their work.  The next morning, the students all came in to class.  I handed out a worksheet and asked them to complete it in class.  Now, I want you to think about this scenario.  What are the benefits of doing things this way?  How is it better than the teacher teaching the lesson live where students can ask questions and the teacher can check for understanding along the way?  Your answer might be that its not better.  Or you might say it allows the teacher time to assist students as they complete their worksheet.  Either way, I think we can agree that the benefits are small while the issues that arise such as students not having access to the internet at home may potentially be large.

image from 123RF

     Let's take the same scenario but incorporate the use of data this time.  This time the students were assigned a video to watch at home, but this time the video was in EdPuzzle with embedded questions.  The next morning the teacher pulled the report and saw all the grades of her students, which students didn't even attempt the video and which students started but didn't finish.  Now the teacher can use all of this information to guide what happens in class.  The students who did not complete the video, started out watching the video and answering the questions.  The students who received low scores on the questions started out meeting in a small group with the teacher for a reteach.  The students who were middle of the road started on their assignment while using the video for support if they get stuck.  The highest students went right to their assignment and completed it quickly or they could even be offered a challenge assignment instead with a video for support if they needed help.  Once the teacher finished meeting with the first small group, she was free to walk around and conference with individual students or pull more students to meet in a small group if needed.
     By just making a few tweaks and using our data, this lesson became an extremely personalized way to teach students.

Blended Learning... So what is that?

Blended Learning is a major buzzword that is being talked about in the world of K-12 education and higher education.  Many people are wondering what is blended learning and why should I care about it.  Let's start out defining what it is.  First, let's take a look at the definition provided by the Christensen Institute:

"The definition of blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns:

1.  at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace;
2. at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home;
3. and the modalities along each student's learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience."

This definition is a great starting point that gets the point across that students must spend at least some of their time in school to be considered blended learning and they must spend some time online.  What this definition leaves open for flexibility is that the online piece can be done at school or away from campus.  This gives educators the opportunity to make blended learning work for both younger students that have to be in class everyday and older students who could have a more flexible schedule with built in release time.

After working with blended learning for the past 3 years, what I began to notice is that this definition is not enough to guide teachers to create exceptional blended experiences.  What I realized is that by following this definition, I could give all my students a video to watch when they get to my class on their own device, then have them complete a worksheet to turn in.  Technically it meets the definition by offering flexibility in pace because students could pause the video or rewatch the video if they wanted.  What it is missing is that personalization.  All the students are still doing the same thing, the same way, at the same time.  This prompted Charles and I to really think about what do we need to add to our vision of what blended learning is in order to inspire teachers to implement really high level blended into their classrooms.

It is at this point that our image was born. 

The missing link to great blended learning is data.  Great blended learning happens when teachers offer flexibility in place, pace, path or time which is guided by ongoing data collection and analysis to provide students with a personalized learning experience that is able to meet their individual needs.