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Blended Learning: Exploring a Little Deeper

Introduction

From the first single-room schoolhouses to the advanced cyber-enabled laboratories, students are entering classrooms with diverse needs and from varying backgrounds. For many years, students would arrive at school with the expectation of being taught by teachers, doing paper and pencil work to show understanding, and doing it all again the next day. Students would memorize content, take a test, then often dump the information to make room for the next round of learning. Educators are beginning to look at pedagogy in a new way and begin adapting teaching practices to meet the needs of today’s learner. Today’s learner typically comes to the classroom with significant background knowledge of technology, whether it is a video game console, smartphone, or tablet. Student’s lives are surrounded by advanced technology. Homes and cars are controlled by cellular phones. YouTube ™ likely has a video for anything a student wants to learn about. Google ™ and like search engines provide an infinite amount of information in seconds. Technology has provided more efficient ways to accomplish tasks, communicate, and connect on a global scale. It is time for educators to harness the power of technology and redirect that power to improve the classroom experience for students by making the learning environment student-centered, relevant, and open to allowing multiple avenues to prove mastery and ability with any content. Implementing a blended learning model in today’s classroom will enable teachers to provide individualized instruction in a relevant way that will provide an opportunity for students to begin taking ownership of their own learning and exercising some choice in how that looks in the classroom. The immediate goal of this shift in the learning environment is an increase in student achievement through more individualized instruction. The long-term goals include students that become critical thinkers and innovators. Students will learn the responsibility and discipline required in self-paced learning thus preparing them better for post-secondary learning environments. This review will reflect current ideas and implementation of blended learning in the elementary classroom. This review will also discuss the limitations, challenges, and expectations one might incur when implementing this model in an elementary classroom.

What is Blended Learning?

Blended learning is a combination of face to face learning and digital or technological tools to enhance learning. The idea is that learning can be split between online at home or other places and the brick and mortar school building (Baily, et al., 2015). Teachers become facilitators and move away from whole group instruction as the main format in the classroom. Blended learning allows for a major shift in the role of the teacher from “the sage on stage” (Friesen, 2013) to the role of a facilitator among the students. Students utilize technology to differentiate based on individual needs. For the purpose of this innovation plan, blended learning would occur as a station rotation model where students would move through a series of stations or centers with intentional activities but also allowing for unique evidence of learning by each student.

Benefits to blended learning. The ability to move through a concept at an individual level allows each student to essentially have their own teacher. Students are not forced to move too fast, which is often responsible for gaps in comprehension in the typical classroom. Students come to public school classroom with diverse needs and at an extreme variance of levels regardless of similar age. The teacher has the opportunity to provide instruction in a small group setting with targeted interventions as needed. Benders and Craft note in their study of small grouping in a mathematics setting that all below level students showed improvement when small group intervention was provided. It is also worth noting that students will require the extra interventions at different times and possibly on different concepts according to the same study (Benders & Craft, 2016). Of the many factors that impact a child’s understanding of complex procedures such as those required by upper elementary math, the chance for individualized instruction would ideally provide the best chance at comprehension when compared to the typical whole group instruction. The author of this review focuses greatly on elementary math, as an elementary math teacher. The experience of the author greatly impacts the goals and desires of this innovation initiative.

Barriers to implementation. The greatest barrier that the author believes exists is the reliability of connection in schools. While the author’s campus maintains a mostly reliable infrastructure, it often becomes overwhelmed when the district traffic is high. On this campus, teacher buy in is not an issue. This campus is a school of innovation having made a transition to a STEAM Academy in 2018. Some schools may encounter an issue with availability of devices, digital programming, consistent professional development and follow up support. None of these barriers exist in this case; however, they are barriers that could exist for other districts.

The ultimate demise of plans such as blended learning seems to be derived from implementation without a plan. Schools get caught in the trap of sounding amazing because it can provide 1:1 devices, but the devices are not used in meaningful or purposeful ways. If the technology does not enhance learning, it is useless and will ultimately end up on shelf collecting dust. Technology is not about a certain device or even a certain number of devices. It is about the connection to the world that students gain when using these tools (West, 2012). Along with the implementation of technological tools, teachers must change the pedagogy that accompanies the technology (November, 2018). Implementation of technology in the blended learning approach allows students to learn at a developmentally appropriate rate and show evidence of learning in equally appropriate ways that can be applied to real life situations. Innovators do not solve problems with worksheets that test knowledge. Innovation occurs when people can apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

Global Lessons Learned in Technology Implementation

Regardless of location, students have unique needs and expectations. Students today have infinite information at the stroke of a few keys. Students will be expected to complete on a level at which teachers are not even aware. The future of the world will continue to change daily. In order to prepare students for the world in which they will live, teachers must guide them in becoming independent, efficient, and collaborative learners. These students will undoubtedly have careers that do not even exist today.

What Worked?

Elementary students are much like adults in that they learn best when they take an active role in their own education. Thibodeaux, Harapnuik, and Cummings (2019), in their article Student Perceptions of the Influence of Choice, Ownership, and Voice in Learning and the Learning Environment, found that students were more likely to engage in activities in which they felt they had some choice in product. They coined the “COVA” learning approach that shifts the responsibility of proving mastery to the student. The student is allowed choice, encouraged to take ownership, and convey their unique voice in authentic learning experiences (Thibodeaux et al., 2019). Engaged students make decisions and use metacognitive strategies to discover themselves as learners (Thibodeaux et al., 2019). The ultimate goal of any educator is to facilitate the growth of critical thinking skills. Shifting the control to the students promotes an environment that supports that goal. Implementation of a blended learning model in the classroom can allow the teacher to provide direct and targeted instruction based on data collected when the students work independently. For example, if a teacher were to create an assignment in which the students watch a short video over a concept, then assign a formative assessment quiz to check for understanding; the data from the quiz would help the teacher plan instruction targeted to specific needs for specific students. The data collections allow for flexible grouping based on academic needs making academic growth far more likely (Benders & Craft, 2016). Because the formative assessments are also digital, the teacher can effectively use class time due to the immediate results instead of disaggregating the data, creating a greater time period between the lesson and the remediation (Mendiburo, Williams, & Hasselbring, 2013). This data helps the teacher plan quickly and efficiently for small group instruction.

The students that show mastery of the concept on the quiz are then able to apply the new knowledge in an authentic and relevant way. The flexible groups designed by the assessments help the teacher to differentiate for these students as well and begin challenging them (Benders & Craft, 2016). Products proving mastery can be open-ended and unique to each student. The student that mastered the concept could then move forward to the next concept rather than being forced to maintain the same speed as a student that needs remediation. This self-pace makes learning relevant to students’ skills and needs. Students are afforded more “control over time, pace, path, and/or place, allowing for more student-centered learning experiences” (Watson, 2015).

What Could Have Been Done Better?

As noted in Chambers article regarding the failure of the iPad launch in LA schools, poor planning will cause utter failure of any initiative (Chambers, 2014). Leaders must have clear academic goals that enhance classroom learning and utilize the many talents of educators at the largest benefit (Baily, et al., 2015). Many technological initiatives need better and consistent professional development and support. Instead of deciding that the school should purchase millions of dollars’ worth of devices for students, districts need to begin with a plan that includes the purpose, affordability, direction, long term support and many other planning procedures (Bailey, et al., 2015). Without that clear and concise idea, the initiative is doomed from the start. The author has found that fear of the technology can also hinder the implementing of new ideas. For too long, educators have feared failure from an evaluative standpoint. It is up to our current administrative teams to break that pattern and begin to see failure as the opportunity to learn. When our students fail, we do not remove them from school, we provide support to help them gain the knowledge. The same effort should be afforded to the educators of today. Additionally, districts can provide ongoing support for educators when planning for and integrating technology. The addition of instructional coaches to campuses would likely increase the likelihood of success in any new endeavor. The support coming from a nonevaluative source is both relieving and beneficial to the teacher. It is the author’s belief that teachers genuinely want to do what is best for kids. That alone can make or break any initiative.

Applying Lessons Learned

Successful implementation of this innovation initiative will rely heavily on a clear purpose for the technology. Technology is not the teacher. Technology is a tool or resource. Teachers and students must understand that the goal is not to use a device for the sake of using a device, but rather using the device to enhance learning (November, 2018). Once the leadership has determined the purpose of technology is to create a global communication tool for students and a meaningful product of learning, the leaders can then put a plan in place to ensure that teachers and students use technology in an effective and purposeful way (Baily, et al., 2015). With broad support from both the admiration on the campus and the district technology department, the transition to a more blended learning approach will be more seamless and occur at a much faster rate than on a campus without equal support. Students will need time to learn and adjust to the new way of learning. Students will need explicit instruction in utilization and expectations with technology. It is highly likely that parental support would greatly optimize the success of the blended learning transition as well.

Gaps in the Research

The largest gaps occur when looking at trends of blended learning in the elementary setting. While elementary teaching includes centers and small group instruction often, they use of technology to differentiate is not widely studied or written about at this time. It is certainly time to expand the study of enhanced learning including student independence and choice by using a blended learning approach in elementary. One might theorize that younger children are not expected to be independent learners as often as secondary aged students. The author believes that if children are trained to set goals, reflect, and explore different ways of learning and providing evidence of learning earlier in education, it will provide great benefits academically and otherwise when they students are completing secondary and post-secondary classes.

Questions for Future Study

The author would like to see more elementary teachers exploring the idea of how technology can create a classroom atmosphere where children have the opportunity to explore content in a unique and individual way. Elementary teachers are extraordinarily creative and have the opportunity to help students become innovators. Teachers owe it to students to enable them with the appropriate tools to becomes self-monitoring and self-aware learners. The author would like to see the shift in learning occur at all levels of elementary and would like to explore a guide for Kindergarten through second grade.

Summary

Ultimately, blended learning allows kids to learn at appropriate rates for themselves. Students exercise control over pace, path, and place (Baily et al, 2014) of their learning. With a well thought out plan, blended learning can combine the very best of teacher instruction with self-paced learning to maximize the comprehension by all students. Blended learning models can help educators differentiate learning for all students (Brodersen & Melluzzo, 2017). The implementation of the station rotation blended learning model should yield improvement in student achievement. Test scores will likely improve by allowing students to move at an individually appropriate pace and because direct instruction is specific and targeted based on data and flexible grouping.

Higher-performing students move at a rate appropriate for themselves, allowing for further enrichment within the content area (Benders & Craft, 2016). They could also become mentors or peer tutors, thus giving them a chance to develop communication and other intrapersonal skills. Students will begin to set learning goals for themselves based on their own data and work toward those goals. They will learn how to measure progress towards goals and how to adjust. Ultimately, students gain the confidence to become independent and effective learners. Students are enabled to become the innovators of the future!

References

Bailey, J., Duty, L., Ellis, S., Martin, N., Mohammad, S., Owens, D., … Wolfe, J. (2015). Blended learning implementation guide 3.0.Retrieved November 30, 2019, from http://digitallearningnow.com/site/uploads/2013/09/BLIG-3.0-FINAL.pdf.

Benders, D., & Craft, T. (2016). The effect of flexible small groups on math achievement in first grade. Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research, 18(1).

Brodersen, R. M., & Melluso, D. (2017). Summary of research on online and blended learning programs that offer differentiated learning options (REL 2017–228). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Central. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs.

Chambers, B. (2014, August 28). L.A. cancels iPads-in-the-schools program: a failure of vision, not technology. Macworld. https://www.macworld.com/article/2599988/lausd-ipad-cancellation-is-a-failure-of-vision-not-technology.html.

Freeman, A., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., and Hall Giesinger, C. (2017). NMC/CoSN horizon report: 2017 K–12 edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Friesen, S., Scott, D. (2013) Inquiry-based learning: A review of the research literature. Retrieved from https://galileo.org/inquiry-based-learning-a-review-of-the-research-literature/

Fritschi, J., & Wolf, M. A. (2012). Turning on mobile learning in North America: illustrative initiatives and policy implications. unesdoc.unesco.org. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000216083.

Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2015). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Lapowsky, I. (2017, June 3). What schools must learn from LA’s iPad debacle. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2015/05/los-angeles-edtech/.

Li, L. (2017). Method to foster sense of community among students in K-12 online education. Proceedings of the 2017 3rd International Conference on Economics, Social Science, Arts, Education and Management Engineering (ESSAEME 2017), 119. https://doi.org/10.2991/essaeme-17.2017.247

Mendiburo, M., Williams, L., Segedy, J., Hasselbring, T., (2013). Towards automated support for small-group instruction: Using data from an ITS to automatically group students. Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness.

November, A. (2018, November 5). Why schools must move beyond one-to-one computing. November Learning. https://novemberlearning.com/article/why-schools-must-move-beyond-one-to-one-computing/.

ICT in Innovative schools: Case studies of change and impacts 1 1 . Introduction: ICT and School Reform:Semantic Scholar. [PDF] (1970, January 1). https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ICT-in-Innovative-Schools-:-Case-Studies-of-Change/d74ee8eaee1babd318461b03886b61871a806751.

Serdyukov, P. (2017), “Innovation in education: what works, what doesn’t, and what to do about it?”, Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 4-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIT-10-2016-0007

Thibodeaux, T., Harapnuik, D., & Cummings, C. (2019). Student perceptions on the influence of choice, ownership, and voice in learning and the learning environment. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education,31(1), 50-62.

Watson, J. (2015). Blending Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 2008–2015. Retrieved from https://www.inacol.org/resource/blending-learning-the-evolution-of-online-and-face-to-face-education-from-2008-2015/

West, M. (2012). Turning on learning global themes. unesdoc.unesco.org. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000216451.

Wyatt, T. R., & Chapman-DeSousa, B. (2017). Teaching as interaction: Challenges in transitioning teachers’ instruction to small groups. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(1), 61-70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-015-0758-6

Reflecting on the Idea of Innovation

Introduction

Changing the way that teachers and students approach learning is the best way to begin to revolutionize education. Using a blended learning station rotation model, like that illustrated in Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools (2014), in the classroom, would certainly change the balance of responsibility in the classroom as well as allow for innovation. This method of learning allows students to really own their learning and allows students to show their understanding in unique ways. The stations cover the same content without the teacher using valuable class time doing a live lesson introducing a concept and creating a reference in an interactive journal. The teacher could video that lesson prior to class and assign it to students to work through independently. This would allow the student the ability to work through the lesson at the student’s pace by allowing them to pause and rewind during the lesson. Students would also work through other stations that focus on a specific concept but allow for unique proof of understanding through open-ended tasks. In her Ted Talk (2014), Monique Markoff goes so far as to suggest that blended learning could potentially eliminate the need for the intense remediations that we currently provide.

What Research Says

In this model, the teacher is now free to teach more intensely in small groups and really target specific needs. Likewise, the teacher can meet with small groups to extend learning so that the higher-level students are never stalled. The teacher is also free to conference with students to help them set goals and plans for meeting those goals. In their book, Horn and Staker (2014) suggest that students will be more engaged and feel more successful when they are able to set weekly goals, develop a plan, and work toward mastery of the goal. The student begins to take ownership of learning and likely will retain more content and be able to apply it in the future.

The ultimate demise of plans such as blended learning seems to be derived from implementation without a plan. As noted in Chambers article regarding the failure of the iPad launch in LA schools, poor planning will cause utter failure of any initiative (Chambers, 2014). Lapowsky concurred that the failure was due to poor planning and purpose (Lapowsky, 2017). The Horizon Report supports this as well when it discussed the idea that widely used technology is not the same as closing the achievement gap (Freeman, et al., 2017). Using technology for the sake of using technology will not accomplish the goal that is set when an educator adopts a blended learning model for the classroom.

Another large fear with learning environments that include devices is that the devices will be misused. While that is a possibility and actually highly likely at some point, the UNESCO report reminds us that in order to be prepared for the 21^st Century with 21^st Century skills, it is a risk that educators must take. The benefits to the use of devices to increase digital literacy and accompanying skills far outweigh the fear of misuse (Fritschi & Wolf, 2012).

Global Lessons Learned-What Worked

Research indicates that a blended learning environment grants the ability to move through a concept at an individual level which in turn allows each student to essentially have their own teacher. Students are not forced to move too fast, which is often responsible for gaps in comprehension in the typical classroom. Students come to public school classroom with diverse needs and at an extreme variance of levels regardless of similar age. The teacher has the opportunity to provide instruction in a small group setting with targeted interventions as needed.

Innovation in education works. It works because the world evolves at an incredible speed and society is reliant on education to keep up so each generation is prepared for the waves of change that will inevitably affect their lives (Serdyukov, 2017). Continuing to grow the curriculum and literacy, whether digital or not, the future generations will continue to innovate and become critical thinkers. It is the belief of this author that the blended learning model will lend itself to forward thinking, self-sufficient, goal-oriented, and high-achieving learners.

Global Lessons Learned-What Could Have Been Done Better?

Many schools simply need to upgrade the infrastructure of their internet connections. Strong connection abilities are essential to a blended learning environment and can negatively interfere if connectivity is not regularly solid. The initiative is not likely to be successful if people are frustrated by unreliable connectivity (ICT, 2001).

Schools also get caught in the trap of sounding amazing because it can provide 1:1 devices, but the devices are not used in meaningful or purposeful ways. If the technology does not enhance learning, it is useless and will ultimately end up on shelf collecting dust. Technology is not about a certain device or even a certain number of devices. It is about the connection to the world that students gain when using these tools (West, 2012). Along with the implementation of technological tools, teachers must change the pedagogy that accompanies the technology (November, 2018).

Applying These Lessons to My Innovation Plan

Students will receive individualized instruction, take ownership of their learning, and be able to show mastery in individual ways with the blended learning model. We already know what works best, so it is time to implement it in the classroom daily to improve the success of our students. Implementation of technology in the blended learning approach allows students to learn at a developmentally appropriate rate and show evidence of learning in equally appropriate ways that can be applied to real life situations. Innovators do not solve problems with worksheets that test knowledge. Innovation occurs when people can apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

References

Freeman, A., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., and Hall Giesinger, C. (2017). NMC/CoSN horizon report: 2017 K–12 edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2015). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

ICT in Innovative schools: Case studies of change and impacts 1 1 . Introduction: ICT and School Reform:Semantic Scholar. [PDF] (2001). https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ICT-in-Innovative-Schools-:-Case-Studies-of-Change/d74ee8eaee1babd318461b03886b61871a806751.

Lapowsky, I. (2017, June 3). What schools must learn from LA’s iPad debacle. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2015/05/los-angeles-edtech/.

November, A. (2018, November 5). Why schools must move beyond one-to-one computing. November Learning. https://novemberlearning.com/article/why-schools-must-move-beyond-one-to-one-computing/.

TEDx Talks. (2014, May 6). Blended learning and the future of education: Monique Markoff at TEDxIthacaCollege. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb2d8E1dZjY&feature=youtu.be

West, M. (2012). Turning on learning global themes. unesdoc.unesco.org. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000216451.

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Reflecting on the Idea of Innovation

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