Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Trust…and you shall see….


           For all the information, philosophical discussions, practice and aggregated performance data, there is no guarantee that blended learning, in and of itself, will be the panacea for targeting student potential. Yet, as the blended learning lead, my mantra continues to resonate with the passionate plea for teachers to trust that this paradigm shift, from teacher-directed instruction to student-centered learning, will pave the way for educational optimization.

It is our second year on the paradigm path shift in grades K-5. Having learned, to a great extent, what blended/individualized learning encompasses, how to plan the path of production and actualize its presence in classrooms, as well as how to cultivate productive partnerships between students & digital content, students & teachers and students & project-based learning teams, it would seem that clarity of practices and  definitive results would begin to prevail, yet, the view of the depth and breadth of this paradigm shift continues to broaden and deepen with more questions than answers.


What we knew:
  • Students love to learn when the content material contains intellectual and sensorial appeal, along with fun-filled interaction.
  •  Teachers want insurance that digitally-delivered content is a reliable & quality means for students’ acquisition of the scope and sequence of subject-related information.
  •  Differentiating instruction, according to need, is essential for student learning.
  • There are not enough hours in the day, nor teachers available, to provide each and every student with individualized instruction according to his/her needs. 

What we learned:

  • Student generated data is a terrific tool for driving instruction, marking goal posts and creating learning paths, also for understanding where a student places in relation to others.
  •  Much of the digital content lacks the exciting bells and whistles required for lengthy student engagement.
  • Teachers do not fully trust digital content as a means for comprehensive knowledge and skill acquisition.
  • Isolating blended learning to math and reading sets an obstacle in the path for obtaining an overall paradigm shift; you can’t develop a mindset, with accompanying methodology for teachers and students alike, when the impending development is halted due to the fact that particular academic content has not been included in the paradigm shift.
  •  Finding the time to analyze data, then use the data to provide individualized teacher-directed instruction, is mostly overwhelming for classroom teachers to accomplish on a daily basis.  
  •   Learning stations require monitoring for maximum productivity.  

What we hope to learn:

  • An efficient way to scrutinize digital lessons for quality content
  • How to find and integrate the best combination of digital content and off-line resources for each student’s learning needs.
  • How to motivate all students along their learning path.
  •  Best practices for managing an individualized student-centered classroom  
  •  How to efficiently obtain & use current data
  • An authentic way to assess individualized learning paths
  • How to determine whether or not learning is being maximized as a direct result of the digital content being delivered.  
  • How to secure the best educational staff members for optimization of individualized learning.
  • How to facilitate high quality, real world applications in relevant, skill-based projects.
  •  How to obtain the time to meet all students’ needs.