“When the expertise and wisdom of the teacher is given equal weight in the blended learning equation, that is bold school” (Kieschnick, p.21). Recently, I had the honor of meeting and talking with Weston Kieschnick, senior fellow at the International Center for Leadership in Education, at the 2017 Model Schools Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. To be honest, I was not familiar with Weston’s work, nor was I familiar with his book, Bold School. However, after listening to his passion about […]
Category: Blended Learning
A Teacher by Any Other Name – The Instructional Shift of Blended Learning
What kind of power is in a title, and what if we redefined the role of the teacher? I’m currently reading the book Blended by Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker. Often when I read a book for professional learning, I skip around depending on the work in which I’m currently involved. Last week, I read a phrase that resonated with me about viewing teachers more as student mentors. I immediately knew I wanted to spend more time thinking and […]
The Word of the Day Podcast—A New Way to Inspire Language Learners
To expand on a popular saying: Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll pass a fishing test and then forget how because he wasn’t all that into fishing in the first place. Inspire a love for fishing, and he’ll fish for a lifetime. I think most teachers want to get their students to that third stage—where learning is no longer a trial, but a game, an endeavor, a creative […]
Removing the Limitations in a Digital Environment
What is the ideal blended learning environment? I have had a lot of noneducators talk to me about technology in the classroom. Most don’t have informed opinions (so I’m happy to share mine with them). Many ask me what the best device is for learning. Sadly, I’ve even had educators argue this point with me in favor of one particular device. Good teaching and sound student-directed learning is not, and should not be, device dependent. High-quality learning can happen on laptops, Chromebooks, […]
The Carrot and The Stick: Are American Schools Actually Teaching Us?
When I was seven-years-old we moved from the United States to Switzerland because of my father’s job. I was born in Brazil, but having left it just two years old, I didn’t really know anything other than the U.S. I didn’t even realize I was Italian, not American. From the moment we stepped off that massive airliner in the dark on that freezing winter’s morning, I thought I had arrived in a fairytale. The mountains and the lake snugly nestled […]
The Secret of Team Allocation in a Flipped Classroom Environment
In a flipped-classroom, blended learning environment with team-based learning it is important to consider the formation of students teams. For students who are first year undergraduate students, freshmen, it can be a much longer and more difficult task to form teams of their own. First year students do not tend to know other students well enough to determine whether they will work well together, i.e. information asymmetry between students. This was something I sought to address through allocating teams in […]
My Experience of Hands-On Learning
I am a student that will always have trouble with math. I remember having trouble understanding the basic concepts since I was little, when I had difficulty telling time after most of the kids in school had already grasped the idea and moved on to the next. In middle school, I even had to retake a pre-algebra class. Of course, everyone has different ways of learning, and my brain just never was able to wrap itself around the logistical, precise […]
An Inside Look at the Ineffable Writing Process
The beauty of writing poetry is that there is no concrete, one formulaic way in which to write it. Every piece marks a learning process, a play with words, a way to let your mind wander into a different setting, mood, world. A meditation. Behind my work, there are all different types of processes before starting a poem. The first major obstacle in writing, besides the initial self-consciousness, includes finding a comfortable and productive spot and just beginning. Sometimes, it seems […]
How to Choose the Right EdTech Tools for Your Classroom
The world of educational technology is a rapidly changing universe, complete with hundreds of “must-have” tools for every classroom and every teacher. I am a firm believer in the power of educational technology in the classroom. The right tools can elevate a student’s learning experience to levels unfathomable to teachers who were in the field even a short ten years ago. Would you like to take your students on a field trip to, perhaps, the Palace of Versailles, the Taj […]
Blending the Traditional Book Study with Digital Tools
Summer is a busy time for many. Vacations. Family time. Housework. Yardwork. Painting. Hobbies. Reading. School book studies??? Summer is an opportunity when many educators dedicate time to read, find new ideas to implement in their classrooms, and brainstorm strategies to use the in fall. Teachers want to read, share, and learn together. There is actually now time to collaborate and share! Traditionally, book studies are done in face-to-face meetings. Teachers choose a book to read together, plan which chapters […]
Preparing Teaching Candidates for Blended and Online Environments
There is a growing need for today’s pre-service teachers to be equipped with skills and competencies for blended, online, and technology-rich teaching and learning environments. As teaching candidates progress through teacher education programs, they should be exploring, evaluating, and applying methods and tools for effective instruction in the dynamic learning environments that exist in today’s K-12 schools. At Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, faculty in the School of Education have developed pathways to help teaching candidates gain experience exploring, evaluating, and […]
Finding a Balance: ThingLink for Digital and Analog Work
Do you sometimes find yourself and your students focused on one type of tool or another? Maybe you’re deep into a writing unit, and students have been immersed in their journals, pencils and paper writing. Or, maybe they’re so immersed in their Google Doc that they haven’t touched a pencil in days. Frankly, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either scenario. Each form of media, digital and analog, has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. I think that as educators, […]
Bridging the Physical-Digital Gap with QR Codes in the Classroom
In a digital world of links, likes, tweets and pins, there are very few mechanisms for connecting our ever expanding digital world with the physical one around us. QR codes are one of the simplest and most well established ways to make this connection, and for students it can create a number of unique and fun learning opportunities, meshing the digital and physical classroom. In the below presentation, cutting edge educator Denise Webster shares the tools she uses, as well as some real world examples for making […]
Google Trends: A Captivating Way to Explore Data with your Students
Overview Did you know that Google receives and processes over 4 million search queries per minute? That is a giant shed load of queries! It is also a giant shed load of data that Google collects and makes openly available to us with Google Trends. An impressively simple gateway to exploring data with your students, Google Trends is an amazing resource that really does not get the attention it deserves. A fascinating research tool, a mind-boggling data source and a bottomless pit of possibilities, Google Trends is well worth investigating. Name: Google Trends Pricing: Free Compatibility: Browser […]
When To Say No To #EdTech
I love to write about adapting technology to almost every area of the classroom and am a firm believer in its wonderful benefits across a wide range of subjects and situations. Having said that however, I am also keenly aware of the potential pitfall of trying to shoehorn technology into every single educational moment. An over-excitement with new technology can occasionally tempt teachers to include it where old-fashioned methods would actually be more effective. Here are 5 situations where I think edtech […]
Why Technology Alone Won’t Reform Education
Dr. Madhav Chavan is a social activist, entrepreneur and the CEO of the educational non-profit, Pratham. He was also responsible for starting the Read India campaign, which aims to teach basic reading, writing and arithmetic to underprivileged children across India. With his diverse background and having studied and taught at universities across the United States and India, Dr. Chavan has broader understanding than most of us when it comes to the challenges facing education. Dr. Madhav Chavan: Technology Alone Won't Reform EducationWatch this video on YouTube […]
Exploring Auditory Learning Opportunities with audioBoom
Overview Our brains absorb information in many, many different ways, where each of our senses offer a different interface to process information. In classrooms, this may be through text, video, interaction or any number of different mediums, but one channel that is often disregarded is audio. AudioBoom (formerly audioBoo) is a super simple tool that puts the focus back on the sense of sound by allowing students and teachers to record, playback, share and search audio online, providing a unique and in many […]
Get the Most Out of Your 1:1 Classroom with Nearpod
Overview Coined “an innovative and interactive classroom tool to create, engage and assess“, Nearpod puts you in control of your students devices, helping them stay on track and engaged in the lesson. Using a desktop or mobile device, teachers can choose exactly what each student sees on their individual screen and can interact through quizzes, open-ended questions, drawing, videos and more. If your school is looking at a 1:1 rollout or is on the way there already, Nearpod is well worth a careful look. […]
Connect and Automate your Digital Classroom Using IFTTT
Overview In an effort to ‘simplify’ our busy lives with technology, it’s all too easy to end up swamped in a stressful world of logins, passwords, emails and notifications. IFTTT (If This Then That) is a beautifully simple tool that can streamline a lot of your day to day tech-tasks by automating all sorts of digital interactions. Using the concept of ‘recipes‘, IFTTT allows you to create simple rulesets to allow your different web services to work together, saving time, effort and sanity. Name: IFTTT […]
Reinforce Positive Classroom Behaviour with ClassDojo
Overview Managing classroom behaviour and devising fresh new ways to motivate students is a big part of the teaching skill set. ClassDojo is an excellent free tool that (with the help of some very cute and friendly monsters) can help teachers handle this often challenging aspect of classroom management. Using a simple points system, students (via their self-made avatars) are rewarded and penalized for certain behaviours taken in class. Whether it be answering a question correctly, helping another student, or simply participating, this simple, fun […]