What Do You Mean This Isn't Blended Learning???

image from 123RF

Have you ever heard this… “We use the computers a lot so we are already doing blended learning.”  You and I both know that there is more to blended learning than just adding some computers to the
mix or we would have been doing blended learning back in the 1980s every time we played Oregon Trail on the one and only computer in the back of the classroom, right?

Blended learning is not about technology.  It’s a meta-strategy used to help personalize the learning for all students.  Really the reason that computers need to be brought into the mix is because 1 teacher in a room with 30 kids can’t do it alone.  The computer becomes a way for the teacher to multiply his/herself in order to work with students in smaller groups or even 1-to-1.  Now, let’s not get carried away to the other extreme and decide that blended learning is putting a student on a software program and letting them learn completely online.  This has a name, but that name is not blended learning.  This becomes either enriched virtual or full on virtual learning.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not bad-mouthing this type of learning. There are situations where this is necessary and works well. But we're talking about blended learning in your regular old 21^st century classroom.

Let’s dig in and take a look at blended learning vs. tech integration.  Tech integration is great and can be very useful and engaging in the classroom.  One useful example of tech integration is by providing students with an online test or quiz. This is helpful because it can help you get grades done either instantly or more quickly and students can get feedback much quicker.  If I did this at the end of a unit for a summative grade, then this is just tech integration.  It was useful, but it didn’t meet any of the criteria for blended learning.  

So, let’s look at our blended learning image again and think about how we can use this same example in a blended learning model.  First, I need data.  That’s easy.  I will have data readily available after the students take the test or quiz.  Then I need to take that a step further and use that data to guide flexibility in pace, place, path or time to personalize the learning.  So, how can I change the scenario to meet this expectation? I could switch up my summative test and make it a pre-assessment to provide starting point data. Now I can use this data to guide how I group students and how I offer flexibility to each group. Maybe a group that is really struggling needs to spend more time with me, the teacher, to get more direct instruction.  Others who have a stronger foundation in the new unit might be successful with a teacher-made video that they can watch then get started on their activity.  Others might not even need a video, but instead they may need some other options that challenge them.  By incorporating the use of technology, I am able to multiply myself as a teacher and meet the needs of more students at one time.

image from 123RF

Now I bet you are wondering, what is the magic formula to know that a lesson is blended and not tech integration. There isn't a magic formula, but you can definitely ask some questions about the lesson using the image above as a guide.  First, are you using some type of data to drive decisions on students needs, groups and activities?  Second, how are you offering flexibility in pace, place, path or time?

Let's look at another example and use these questions to guide our decision.  I set up 3 stations that my students will rotate through.  Station 1 is a video with questions.  Station 2 is a computer simulation game.  Station 3 is a worksheet to practice the concepts.  I will be walking around and answering questions.  Is this blended learning?  Well, let's take a look.  Did I use any type of data to inform my groups or the work each group is doing?  When looking at this scenario, I don't see any data being used.  Already I can tell that this is not blended learning because I did not use data, but let's look a the next question just for fun.  Did I offer any flexibility in the stations based on the data?  Again the answer is no.  All the students are doing the same 3 stations just in a different order.  This is not flexibility.  There is no purpose or reason for the stations other than having students working together in groups as they complete the tasks.

When creating blended learning lessons, just remember to keep these questions at the forefront of your mind and you'll have a great way to gauge if your lesson is tech integration or blended learning!

How to Become A Man (or Woman) With a Plan

     I know what many of you are thinking... All this theory and explanation is great, but seriously just give me a lesson plan template to fill in and I'll be on my way.  It's okay, you can admit it.  I'm a realist.  This is what we kept hearing from teachers, so Charles and I both researched different templates for blended learning, but let me just tell you, the results were not good.  They looked like a regular lesson plan and included things such as objectives, digital tools used, in-person components, etc.  The problem is that it was just a list of items going down the page.  Blended learning is not a linear list.  It's fluid and sometimes circular, sometimes not.  Sometimes it heads in a million different directions and sometimes it all converges into one.
     In our quest to make all of our teachers happy, we continued looking for the perfect way to lesson plan.  One day Charles came upon the image to the right that can be found at this link.  We shared this image with one of our administrator groups about a year ago and got good feedback.  We realized that showing these icons helped them to understand what blended learning could look like and also to make the connection that it still uses pieces that we have always used such as assessment, small groups and independent work.
     We decided to take this idea to the next level and create icons that our teachers could use as hands-on pieces to see how their lessons transform from traditional at the beginning of the academy to blended by the end.  We created our own cards and added a few more icons so that teachers had some manipulatives to use.  You can access our cards, here.  These cards are used to plan different iterations of blended learning lessons as well as lessons done using different models.  Once you lay the cards out in the way that you want your blended learning lessons to look, then you can simply fill in the details that go along with each of the cards.  Let's look at a couple examples of lessons that teachers have mapped out using the cards in our academy. (More examples are included in the icon card file)

     As you can see in the images above, blended learning does not fit in linear boxes down a page.  So, if you want to be a man (or woman) with a plan for blended learning, then I suggest that you print out a set of our blended learning icon cards and start laying out your blended learning lesson.  If you want to try to create these blended learning maps digitally, try using this template that I created.

     Have fun planning and please be sure to tweet out a picture of your blended learning map to us! @MrsShawGTT and @Thrasymacus

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto: Relationships and Data in a Blended Learning Experience

There's a line in the song Mr. Roboto... 


🎶 The problem's plain to see
Too much technology
Machines to save our lives
Machines, de-humanize 🎶

Many of us, including myself, once derided cold data's "over use" because it seemed to dehumanize the student.  My son, Charlie, for example, is more than his STAAR score or IQ or whatever... Grades are incredibly subjective by nature, especially if you consider what gets weighted more and what gets weighted less.

Which is a TRUER indicator of student learning: homework grades, test grades, standardized tests, conversations, exit tickets???  Further, how do we weigh those assessments so that the final number is a true indicator of the student's actual understanding???  UGH!!!

But... the aforementioned data CAN help refine a process to help scaffold learning to push my son to achievement more than he is currently.  Data can help teachers create personalized learning experiences that create greater engagement and frame the learning.

Data is a tool for learning, not the goal of learning.

As you've read through these blog posts, we certainly hope that you've picked up on a concept that some supporters of blended learning under emphasize.  Namely, at the core of the personalized learning experience that blended learning affords is the duality that data tracking and conversations can inform and build relationships and relationships help guide student achievement via data analysis.

The benefits to implementing blended learning lessons, those that incorporate student/teacher analysis of data in order to personalize the learning experience via flexibility in pace, place, path, time are aplenty.  Did I just use the 1930's farmer term "aplenty" in a blended learning blog?  You betcha buttons I did!

Those benefits, which include higher student engagement on tasks, higher student achievement, further development of future ready skills, and so on, are rooted in how teachers prepare for student learning via breakdown of data.  The data, formative or summative, can take on the guise of exit tickets, quizzes, exams, discussions, and other assessments.  In our Blended Learning Academy, we work with teachers on the idea that none of their old quizzes or exams need to be thrown out when blended.  They simply need to be re-purposed.  The exam, for example, can now be used as both a pre-assessment and post-assessment to gauge growth in a blended lesson.

In one of our recent Blended Learning Academies for administrators, Shelly and I did an immersive activity.  Our participants were immersed in a blended lesson that focused on federalism.  We gave them a pre-test on the topic with 5 fairly basic questions.  Used the responses to group our participants.  Each group was then put at one of three stations.  Station 1 was with me, the government teacher where I would walk them through the concept of federalism, introduce relevant topics, and assess via high level questions all the way through.  Station 2 had participants researching five Supreme Court cases that dealt with federalism disputes between the state and national governments.  They were asked on an instruction card to look for patterns and talk about those patterns.  Station 3 had students discussing in small groups what a future federalism court case or issue might be.  They had to talk about the future possibilities and come to a consensus on the topic and how the Supreme Court might rule.

Each group's size was determined by the participants performance on the pre-assessment (the session average was a 65).  The participants who scored higher on the assessment were given more autonomy, the middle group had a scaffolded exercise to guide them, and the lower group was with me, the teacher.  We also rotated.  The first rotation was longer since I wanted to the lower scorers to stay with me a bit longer.  The second rotation was a little shorter. The third rotation was about as long as the second.

We then pulled the group back together after the rotations and had them take the post test.  The session average at that point was a 95 with the lowest grade being a 60 and the next lowest being an 80 and every else scoring a 100.

We then all debriefed, first, about federalism and the lessons we had learned.  Second, we talked about the station rotation model that we used and how it could be co-opted into a variety of classes and resource rich or poor circumstances.

All of these conversations were centered around the particular types of data we had collected.  Pre quiz, post quiz, conversations, peer to peer reflections, and even body language.

At the end of the day, participants stayed behind to talk and the conversations tended to gravitate to that lesson and how the data drove the experience and the experience was a social one where learning occurred at high level.  The participants were very friendly with me, the teacher, and we all felt social connections, but to be honest I didn't ask them at any point about their favorite color or food or where they grew up.  Our social bond presented itself as a tangent to the data break down and my scaffolding of their learning experience.  They learned something new and seemed exhilarated by the experience and felt a social connection to me... but that social connection was steeped in the content and data.  I hope that makes sense.

The data in essence gave the context to a rich learning experience that allowed us to bond over the discovery of surprising facts about federalism.

So in the blended learning environment, data is not an end in and of itself.  The data is used to personalize the learning experience for each student so that they can achieve greater heights in F2F and online modalities.  The two worlds blend better together when data informs what needs to be online and what needs to be face to face.  Relationships grow because student's dendrites are being excited by experiencing success that is hand crafted (by their own hands hopefully) especially for them.  The analysis of data answers the question how should I teach, what should I teach, what should go online, what should be small group, what should be whole group, and so on.

Me gusta data. 🤖❤️

To Flip or Not To Flip - Part 2

     Let's dive back into the flipped classroom and see how it works with the last two components of our blended learning model.
     When people think about the flipped classroom, they generally envision the teacher assigning one video for everyone in the class to watch at some point that night.  Although there is nothing innately wrong with this, there are so many other possibilities to use flipped classroom as a way to offer flexible pathways.  Let's take a look at one example.  As the teacher, instead of giving my students one video to watch, I'm going to offer different options based on levels of readiness and preferred modalities.  I'm going to offer 3 different learning levels.  You could name them something like novice, intermediate and expert levels.  At each level, you can offer students different ways to learn such as videos, articles, or even pages from the textbook.  Then let the kids choose how they want to learn and at what level.  Maybe I have no idea what a ratio is, so I start at the novice level and watch a video.  After I finish the 3 minute introduction to ratios, I want to learn more so I move up to the intermediate level.  This time I choose to read the corresponding pages in the textbook, and I can also watch the video if I want. I can choose to stop there or I can go on to the advanced level and become an expert in ratios.  Meanwhile, another student already learned ratios previously, so they might start at the intermediate level watching a quick video for a quick refresher then move on to become an expert.  Now students are able to choose their own learning path while the teacher works to support, reinforce and challenge students as they move through this journey.

Image from Meme Generator

     Finally, let's dig in and look at how data really ties all of this together in the flipped classroom environment.  I know what you might be thinking at this point.  So, all my students are out watching videos and reading articles in class, out of class... all over the place.  How will I ever know what's going on?  This is where data comes in.  Teachers still need to keep tabs on their kids to see if they are actually learning.  Using available tools such as quizzes in your LMS and online sites such EdPuzzle or PlayPosit will allow you to continually gather data each day to see which students have mastered the concepts and which students have not.  This is where all that free time you created for yourself comes into play.  If you give students a quiz as part of their flipped learning experience, then you can check the quiz grades each day.  This will guide you as you make decisions on who needs to meet with the teacher in a small group for reteaching on the concept and who can continue working at their own pace as they are progressing along nicely.  One word of caution, make sure to find time to meet even just for a few minutes with all students so that you can continue to build relationships with everyone.  The only difference is that what you do in the small group might look different.  If I pull a group of student who performed poorly on today's quiz, then I will be working to find out where misconceptions lie and reteaching the concept.  Then I might pull a group of students who scored very high on the quiz.  With this group I would challenge their thinking, ask high level Bloom's questions to make them think critically and maybe even assign them a challenging task or problem to solve.
     By combining all the elements of blended learning with flipped classroom experiences, you can offer students personalized learning experiences, establish better relationship through small group and individual interactions and not go home exhausted every night.

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.