Blended Learning | Education Elements
Blended learning is still a relatively new way of approaching instruction, and we are proud to collaborate with organizations and schools that continue to push the boundaries of what learning could look like when technology is used to increase personalization. We are particularly excited about a partnership that takes blended learning outside the classroom walls to create learning environments that are seamlessly connected to the community.
Last Friday, Dr. Lisa Duty wrote a post on Tom Vander Ark’s blog on Education Week entitled “Shaping Communities as the World’s Classrooms.” Dr. Duty is Senior Director of Innovation at KnowledgeWorks, a social enterprise that incubates and scales up innovative schools and education initiatives. In her post, she lays out a vision for a learning ecosystem created through the fusion of blended learning and collective impact. Such a fusion would connect learning experiences across classrooms and communities, providing a “nexus point through which multiple providers can systematically connect, unlock, and reallocate existing resources to provide young people with access to more/quality learning opportunities than may be available under distinct and separate organizations.”
We are excited to be partnering with both KnowledgeWorks and Reynoldsburg City Schools to co-design, implement and support this model of a “learning oasis”. This school year, we are already working within the Reynoldsburg City Schools district to launch blended learning. One of the schools, Hannah Ashton Middle School, just recently successfully launched blended learning with one-to-one laptops for the seventh grade. These schools which are starting with traditional blended learning now will set a strong foundation for the development of Oasis across the district over the next few years.
We plan to share our lessons along the way, so that other districts can learn from our work connecting schools and communities. One of these opportunities is through the SXSWedu conference in March 2013. We proposed a panel entitled, “In It Together: Blended Classrooms and Communities,” to be led by Dr. Duty, my colleague Amy Jenkins, and myself. During the panel we plan to discuss our goals, our design challenges, and our successes to date. Panels are selected in part based on voting, so if you are interested in hearing more we hope you will vote for the panel. Voting is open now through October 5th. Even if you can’t attend, we will share our presentation and our learnings here on “The Garden” after the event.
If you are working on similar initiatives, have experiences to share, or have questions to ask we would love to continue the conversation. You can reach out via Twitter @LisaDuty1 and @edelements, post a comment on our blog, or reach me by e-mail at vanessa@edelements.com.
UPDATE:
A few months later, our work together on Oasis continues to move forward. Last week, Lisa Duty, Amy Jenkins and I had the opportunity to introduce the concept and discuss our latest work on Oasis at the SXSWedu conference in Austin, TX.
The underlying vision of integrating learning experiences outside and inside the classroom through a fusion of blended learning and collective impact remains the same. Through continued research and development and partner meetings we have laid out the plans for a pilot at Hannah Ashton Middle School (HAMS) starting in Fall 2013. The principal, Denise Lutz, and the teacher team have had a busy year launching a blended learning program in the 7th grade. The lessons they have learned will prepare them to expand blended learning to the whole school and implement the initial phase of the Oasis model in the fall. The experience at HAMS will serve as a proof point for Oasis before launching in other schools across Reynoldsburg.
We are deep into the “Design Phase” with KnowledgeWorks, their subsidiary EdWorks, the HAMS team and local community partners, as we develop what the program will look like in its first year. In addition to the typical design process that Education Elements follows with other blended learning clients - which includes developing the instructional program and selecting digital content – we are also layering in how community partners will also be involved using the strategies of blended learning. We are particularly excited for the work ahead and look forward to sharing more about the design soon.
