A Principal’s Guide to Blended Learning

Jeff Piontek, PhDCurriculum and Assessment PresidentEducational Consulting Services, LLC

Blended learning

A formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of instruction and content, with some element of student control over time, place, path and/or pace

and

at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home (such as school).

Definition of blended learning

Any time a student learns in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar place away from home

At least in part through online delivery, with some element of student control over time, place, path and/or pace

and

= Blended learning

Copyright Innosight Institute, Inc.

Blended/Hybrid Learning

Self-direction, high engagement, (Less direct student support needed)

Struggling student, low-engagement, (More direct student support needed)

Providing Opportunities to All Students

Credit Recovery

Aspiring athletes and performers

Medically Fragile

Home Schoolers

Accelerated Students

Need to work and/or support family

Traditional Public/Private

Special Education and ELL

Rural Students

Customization and Personalization….the future of learning

Integrated Customizable

• Different paces• Different priorities• Different

intelligences

Traditional factory-style system Online learning

Why Flexibility in Learning?

With the increasing use of a variety of

approaches for learning in the

information age

Learners' preferences are changing from wanting to be

taught mostly in lectures or direct training sessions

To wanting increased flexibility.

Why Flexibility in Learning?

Today, learners want to have more say in • WHAT they learn• WHEN they learn• WHERE they learn, and • HOW they learn

Can we do what learners want?

Next Generation Models ofOnline and Blended

Learning

Hybrid/Blended

Programs BlendedCourses

•Online course and/or•Online content•Online instruction•Digital/adaptive curriculum or software•LMS/Technology

•Buffet: F2F & Online Courses•Emporium: F2F place with blended/hybrid approaches to learning

How Students Are Using Technology at School

Online learning is moving into schools

90% of kids need a

supervised, safe place to learn

(cannot be homeschooled)

What Does it Look Like?

Blended Learning exists on a continuum between 100% face-to-face & 100% online course materials:

Completely F2F Completely Online

Blended

Components of Blended Learning

• 1. Synchronous (live) Classroom format

• 2. Synchronous (live) online format

• 3. Asynchronous (not live) self-paced format

Tech-rich = blended

F2F Driver

6 Models of blended learning

Rotation

Flex

Online Lab

Online Driver

Self Blend

Supervised brick and mortar

Some potential for flexibility

Most potential for remoteLOCATION

Face-to-face Mix of both Online deliveryTYPE OF INSTRUCTION

STUDENT INDEPENDENCE

Low Medium High

EXTRACURRICULARS AND SOCIALIZING

Traditional Traditional plus online options

Varies from both options to neither option

Fewer traditional elements

More traditional elements

Copyright Innosight Institute, Inc.

Rotation Flex Self-Blend Enriched Virtual

• Station rotation• Lab rotation• Flipped Classroom• Individual rotation

Online platform with F2F support and fluid schedules

Students attend physical school & take 1 or more courses online

Students learn sometimes at a physical school, other times remotely

Emerging models of blended learning

Station-Rotation Model:

Teacher-led Instruction

Collaborative activities & stations

Individualized Online Instruction T

Lab-Rotation Model:

TDirect Instruction

Literacy/Social Studies

TDirect Instruction

Math/Science

TDirect Instruction

Literacy/Social Studies

Learning Lab

Reading, Math

P

Teacher (T)Paraprofessional (P)

Individual-Rotation Model:

T

T

T

Learning Lab

Direct Instruction

Group Projects

15:1

Central Learning Lab

TIntervention

Seminar

5:1

12:1

273 students6 teachers (T)

T

T

Advancing Our Mental Models of Blended Learning:

Digital Differentiation through Intelligent Adaptive Software

Tim Hudson, PhDDirector of Curriculum Design

DreamBox Learning

Session Outcomes• Reframe and refocus your thinking about

learning and blended learning– What outcomes do we want for students?– How are these goals best achieved?– How can true differentiation become a reality without

burdening teachers’ time?

• Learn how software can effectively unify:– Curriculum design– Learning theory– Student engagement

Differentiation Defined• Teachers have a responsibility to ensure that all of their

students master important content.• Teachers have to make specific and continually evolving

plans to connect each learner with key content.• Differences profoundly impact how students learn and the

nature of scaffolding they will need at various points in the learning process.

• Teachers should continually ask, “What does this student need at this moment in order to be able to progress with this key content, and what do I need to do to make that happen?”

Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroomby C.A. Tomlinson & M.B. Imbeau, ASCD, © 2010, pp. 13-14

Which blended model is better?FLIPPED-CLASSROOM ENRICHED-VIRTUAL

What is happening with the teacher?What is happening on the computers?

H. Staker, M. Horn, Classifying K-12 Blended Learning, © 2012Blending is a means to what ends?

Plan Schooling Backwards• “Contemporary school reform

efforts… typically focus too much on various means:• structures,• schedules,• programs,• PD,• curriculum,• and instructional practices (like

cooperative learning).”

• Or blended learning.p. 234-235, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007

Plan Schooling Backwards• Certainly such reforms serve as

the fuel for the school improvement engine, but they must not be mistaken as the destination…[which is] improved learning.”

p. 234-235, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007

Before Blending1. What do you want students

to accomplish?

2. How will you know they’ve achieved it?

3. What technology will you need for their learning?

Plan Backwards

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Understanding by Design, Wiggins & McTighe, ©2005

Pop Quiz• 3,998 + 4,247 =• 288 + 77 = • 8 + 7 =• What is a good strategy?• What is fluency?• How is fluency learned?• Can you get this from a calculator?

Compensation

Learning Principles• “An understanding is a learner

realization about the power of an idea.”

• “Understandings cannot be given; they have to be engineered so that learners see for themselves the power of an idea for making sense of things.”

• “The goal of all learning is fluent and flexible transfer – powerful use of knowledge, in a variety of contexts.”

p. 113, Schooling by Design, Wiggins & McTighe, ©2007

dreambox.com/teachertools

dreambox.com/teachertools

dreambox.com/teachertools

?

DreamBox Summative Assessment

Proficient in 1.NBT.3

Correctly solve several

problems quickly without

assistance in each objective

150-300 problems presented

overall

31 measurable

learning objectives

Continuous Formative Assessment• What incorrect answers would we expect on a

problem like 29 + 62?– 81 Student does not regroup to the tens place– 81 Student adds columns from left to right– 811 Student adds each column independently– 92 Arithmetic error in ones place– 33 Student believes this is a subtraction problem

• How would you score each error?• How would you respond to each error?• What lesson(s) need to come before & after?• Which of these errors are “naturally occurring?”

Intelligent Adaptivity

A

CB

Student Groups by Proficiency

DreamBox Differentiates• DreamBox Teachers continually ask:

“What does this student need at this moment in order to be able to

progress with this key content, and what do I need to do to make that

happen?”

Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroomby C.A. Tomlinson & M.B. Imbeau, ASCD, © 2010, pp. 13-14

Primary Engagement Environment

Intermediate Engagement Environment

For more information visitwww.dreambox.com