Week 1 MOOC

Hello Fellow MOOC participants,


My name is Janine Logar and I am a 5th grade teacher at a IB PYP school in Denver, Colorado.  I began hearing whispers of this thing called blended learning and flipped classrooms about 2 years ago.  Curious, I tiptoed my way into a tech conference held by my district where it seems everyone spoke in code: Web 2.0 tools, blended learning. flipped classrooms, digital portfolios and something about a cloud, where quite frankly I felt like I was.  I came out of the day armed with a few ideas about revamping my classroom and a few hundred questions on what to do next.  I then attended the TIE conference in Copper Mountain over the summer.  It became apparent to me that these whispers were about to become a roar and these concepts were about to crash into schools and take them by storm.  My school is a International Baccalaureate school so the idea that blended learning could make a classroom truly inquiry based, inter-disciplinary and differentiated while making my students ready for the upcoming PARCC tests and 21st century ready seems to resonate deeply with myself and many others in my school.  It is my hope that we can help champion the cause of Blended Learning in Denver and bring it to the IB organization as the next step in their already student driven approach to learning.

The MOOC is a great place for us to start getting our feet wet and our minds ready to think strategically about how this might look for us in the upcoming years.

A reflection on my learning so far:

The way in which students receive instruction can be viewed as a continuum.

• Traditional brick and mortar classrooms: Students receive instruction during the designated class times mostly through the planning and control of the teacher.  In my mind, the pros of this are the interactions students can have with their teacher and their peers.  Cons:  It offers little time for true differentiation (here I am literally speaking of an individualized course of instruction based on need).  Also, it offers little interaction with the parents aside from a phone call home or a special school night where students share their work. 
• Total On-Line courses: Students receive instruction any time and any where in the digital universe.  Interactions with peers and teachers is strictly on line  Again, in my mind their are pros and cons to this model.  Pro: Students can decide when that are ready for instruction, it allows students to engage in a platform they are familiar with (the internet), and allows for students who struggle in a typical classroom a option.  Cons:  I believe peer and teacher collaboration in a very important part of the whole child development of the human psyche.  While on-line programs can be robust, I sincerely believe that nothing can replace the importance of a person who believes that you are important.  Also, I think our students need to learn the value of compromise, collaboration, and communication as well.
• Blended Learning:  I see Blended Learning as the Goldilocks of these two models.  It allows for the social and emotional benefits of engaging in a classroom without compromising the individuality of students academic needs

Next I would like to speak quickly about how I see the three major benefits of Blended Learning affecting my personal practice:

• Engagement:  I have experimented a bit with Blended Learning this year.  One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how much cooler an more interested the students are when they get to do the task on the computer.  This holds true for whether the task is a video and some practice problems, game, or a project using Web 2.0 tools.  I have seen a reduced number of boredom and   behavior incidents as a result.
• Assessment:  I like assessment that helps drive my instruction.  In the end, if a student can not do a task independently then they have not transferred their learning no matter how much they paid attention.  I can see blended learning really improving my ability to set tasks, analyze results, and intervene instantly if a student has not obtained mastery.
• Differentiation: This may be the key to both of the benefits listed for blended learning.  How can you have a different lesson plan for 24-30 kids in every subject?  The key is differentiated tasks.  We know that kids act out when the ZPD is too hard.  We know that they will never be able to build on a concept if the foundational concept was never in play.  What about our poor GT kids who have to hang in there for 20-30 minutes on something they got in the first 5 minutes.  Blended learning really can help here.

Quickly wanted to say that the live Webinar was a great foundational video for schools and districts who are interested in doing blended learning right.  This is definitely a concern that I have going into this huge paradigm shift.  It is not enough for districts, schools, and donors to back the money truck up if a strategic plan is not in place for teachers.

Thanks,

Janine