OESIS - Online Education Symposium for Independent Schools

October 10th-11th I attended the Online Education Symposium for Independent Schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  As you will see from my conference session choices, my focus in attending this conference was blended learning. My goal in attending a conference like this is to walk away with a few ideas and tools that I can either share with the teachers at Holton and use in professional development trainings I offer. While I intended to write a quick post to share the highlights from my favorite sessions, the post turned out to be MUCH longer than anticipated. Clearly this was a conference worth attending!

Blended Learning, from Pedagogy to Practice

Darby Carr, Head of Laurel Springs School

• The most important thing to do right now is to do something - dip your toe in the water
• Try something small
• You can always change it later.
• If it works build upon it, if not change it!
• Think about how many times you have changed your curriculum thought the years - adding new activities and resources.

 

Blended Learning Workshop: Designing Blended Learning

John Watson, Founder of Evergreen Education Group

• Good classroom teachers have always blended their methods, "using the right tool in the right situation for the right purpose."
• "Today's blended learning approach effectively combines two things that make each other more powerful, a face to face classroom with a talented teacher combined with technology and computer mediated activities to form a synergistic integrated structural approach."
• "Blended learning really becomes an opportunity to provide differentiated instruction for individualized and personal student learning."

Blended Learning- An Introduction to Blended Learning by edurevolution

Blended learning is all about solving problems, achieving an educational goal and expanding opportunities.  You need to know why you want to blend in order to know the approach to take. 

 

What Do We Do Now That We Are Here? Maximizing Classroom Time in a Blended Learning Class

Meredith Stewart, Teacher and Department Chair, Cary Academy

• Continuing the Conversation

EX: Project a short video to either spark conversation around a topic or to introduce a topic for the first time. Have students post reactions, key terms, and observations in real time using TodaysMeet.  The resulting transcript not only records the input from all students, but also serves as a starting off point for the discussion that follows.

• Assessing prior knowledge

EX: On board, ask students to arrange wars in chronological order, or list in terms of number of casualties - the great thing about doing this on the board in class is that you really get to understand what the students currently know - can't look up things on the internet

• Complicating Content

EX: Ask students to come to class having prepared to write perspective from one side, then when students come to class pair them up and ask that they write a perspective that both sides would agree to

EX: Pose a question that has no correct answer (Indentured Servants - Were they more like claves or free colonists?). Ask students to write their initials on a post-it note and place it on a continuum to represent what they think. Look at the spread. Then have students read an account (person who traveled with indentured servants) and repeat the exercise with a different colored post-it note. Discuss how opinions have changed 

 

Resources

Meredith's Presentation 
Meredith's Blog
TodaysMeet

 

Incorporating Design Thinking into the Blended Model

Matthew Cavellier, Director of Academic Innovation, Shattuck-St.Mary's School
Hannah Sobol, Blended Learning/weCreate Coordinator, Shattuck-St.Mary's School

• Design thinking process as a way to design more effective lessons - identify the problem and find a great solution - every one of us is doing design thinking when we design our lessons, constantly thinking and rethinking about what we are doing to make it better and more successful
• 20 minute design thinking  - way to identify a problem, brainstorm, analyze, and get clean feedback even if we are not being true to the entire design thinking process.

Resources

Virtual Crash Course in Design Thinking
PowToon - A super cool tool to create animated presentations! EXAMPLE

 

The Expansive Use of Blended Learning in an Independent School

Nick Stoneman, President, Shattuck-St.Mary's School

• Blending learning is not just a teacher offering online stuff
• Blending learning is a pedagogical shift that redefines teaching
• Blending learning is not about hardware or software it is about a fundamental shift! 

Once you are there - what else can you do...

• Winterim - stop classes off two weeks - all classes are delivered virtually  - students can focus on something else
• Parent Training - interactive resources with live chats, web chats, recorded lessons, links, etc.
• Alumni or Parent Book Club - onsite and virtual meetings
• Alumni courses - Taught by beloved faculty
• Alumni mentors - Alumni offering virtual student mentoring sessions for career path choice and discussions
• Outreach - Provide teaching resource to schools in emerging markets
• Ted Talks - Produce Ted talk like videos from faculty, staff even students!