Blended Learning

What is it?

• Blended Learning is where students receive education through a combination of both face-to-face and digital or online media sources.
• Digital or media elements should allow students to have some control over time, place, and pace of learning.

Why use it?

• As mentioned before, students have more control over time, place, and pace of learning
• Appeals to different types of learners
• Students take more ownership of their learning
• Blended Learning be used and applied in a variety of methods; can look different in each classroom

How I used it

• I used both Google Classroom and Discovery Education to provide my students with videos or other resources for learning
• Every student had a video assigned to watch and respond to via Google Classroom
• With Discovery Education, I could assign videos to specific students, based on their learning needs.

Results and Reflections

• My elementary students LOVED using Google Classroom and having a video to watch and respond to in addition to our normal curriculum
• I observed 100% engagement of my students when using the blended style of teaching
• It was simple and easy to share a video and assignment via Google Classroom (once the student's joined my class)

Results and Reflections (Cont.)

• Discovery Education allowed me to share videos with specific students based on their needs; different from Google Classroom
• I could set deadlines for students to have videos and assignments to be completed by--allowing students to work at their own pace

For the future

• Laptop cart is shared in our building. To continue using blended learning model, I need to find more ways to have technology readily available for all students in my class all of the time.
• I will definitely continue using videos for a specific group of students that I observed significantly more engagement and learning than just receiving instruction from me.

Additional Resources

• Edutopia and Blended Learning: http://www.edutopia.org/blended-learning-resources#graph1
• Beginner's Guide to Blended Learning http://blog.aeseducation.com/2013/06/beginners-guide-to-using-a-blended-lea...
• Find Videos for your Classroom: https://www.khanacademy.org/