10 Big Blended Learning Questions

The CityBridge-NewSchools Education Innovation Fellowship is a great developmental opportunity for teachers in Washington DC.  On Monday we’re holding a conversation about blended learning.  Following is a list of some of the questions we’ll discuss and some resources for developing answers.
1. Why now?  Why should principals consider redesigning around a blended model? Why not wait? How to start conversations? How to build support?

• Alliance for Excellent Education: Why Digital Learning?
• Improving Conditions & Careers: How Blended Learning Can Improve The Teaching Profession
• 10 Drivers of Blended Learning
• What’s Your Main Purpose For Blended Learning?

Where to start?  To phase or plunge?  What is the first step in translating knowledge of blended learning into action in a school? What are promising strategies around change management and cultivating buy-in at the school level?

• DLN Blended Learning Implementation Guide (recommends phasing)
• Alliance for Excellent Education Project 24
• 10 Steps to Build Support for Blended Learning
• Rocky Mount NC: Where Rocketship Meets Carpe Diem (K-12 flip to blended)

2. What model? Is a classroom rotation model or lab rotation better for an elementary school?

• DLN Blended Learning Implementation Guide
• An Inside View of Blended Integration at Rocketship Education (lab rotation)
• Christensen Institute database of models

Should a high school consider a flex model over a rotation model?

• NGLC Profiles: 20 next-gen high schools
  • Next-Gen Models Attack Problems, Leverage Opportunities
  • Next-Gen Learning Models Blend Tech & Experiences
  • Next-Gen Models Break New Ground, Promote System Redesign
• Carpe Diem: the best of school leadership and management
• 10 Reasons Every District Should Open a Flex School
• Nexus Lansing: A New High School Experience
• iPrep: The Miami Flex

3. How to manage mastery?  How will competency-based environments work?

• The Shift From Cohorts to Competency
• CompetencyWorks Briefing Papers
• Detroit: Pulling Out of the Death Spiral (A nice mixture of dynamic cohorts in a competency-based environment)
• Pondering Urban High School Improvement (High Tech High makes use of diverse cohorts and requires frequent demonstrations of learning)

5. What device?

• Houston High School Students Get Laptops Next Year
• 25 Tablet Ideas to Enhance Learning Experiences
• Charlottesville Chooses Windows Tablets
• Why Three Districts Chose Chromebooks Over Tablets
• Turkish Kids Are Getting Tablets, What’s Your State Doing?

6. How to pay for it?

• DLN Funding Sustainable High-Access Environments (includes BYOD tips)
• DLN Funding Students, Options, and Achievement (state policy)
• Investing in Productivity: How to Pay For Blended Learning

7. How will teaching change?  What about teacher training?

• Opportunity Culture
• DLN Improving Conditions & Careers

8. What about relationships? How much time online? How do you build a powerful culture?

• Blended Learning That Is Truly Blended
• It’s Not About the Machine, It’s About Heart
• It’s All About Culture at Acton Academy
• Carpe Diem: The Best of School Leadership and Management

9. What policies will help?

• 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning
• Data Backpacks: Portable Records & Learner Profiles
• It’s Time for The Next Big Advance: Comparable Growth Measures

10. What’s new? What’s next? What should we pay attention to?  What tech/pedagogical innovation will be big advances.  What are the “innovation gaps” we still need to close?  What do we need most for this blended learning work to really take off?

• i-Ready is Ready for Prime Time (adaptive learning is a big deal)
• What’s All The Buzz About Detroit? (competency-based models/platforms)
• 10 Elements of Competency-Based Learning
• How Digital Learning Contributes to Deeper Learning
• What Sort of Research Should We Be Doing on Blended Learning 

Every metro area needs a capacity development program like the Fellowship.
Disclosures: Curriculum Associates and Digital Learning Now! are Getting Smart Advocacy Partners.