hybrid learning

The Pivot to Digital Learning: 40 Predictions — from Tom Vander Ark, Partner, Revolution Learning — via EdNet Insights

From DSC:
That posting includes predictions for changes that we’ll see in the next 1, 5 and 10 years…with some excerpts below:

3. Lingering budget woes will cause several districts and charter networks, particularly in California, to flip to a blended model, with a shift to online or computer-based instruction for a portion of the day to boost learning and operating productivity.

9. The instant feedback from content-embedded assessment, especially learning games, simulations, virtual environments, and MMOs (massively multiplayer online games), will be widely used in formal and informal learning and will build persistence and time on task.

10. Adaptive content will result in more time on task (in some cases, two times the productive learning time over the course of a year), and better targeted learning experiences will boost achievement, particularly among low-income and minority students.

11. Comprehensive learner profiles will gather keystroke data from learning platforms, content-embedded applications, as well as after-school, summer school, tutoring, and test prep providers. Students and families will manage privacy using Facebook-like profiles.

12. Most learning platforms will feature a smart recommendation engine, like iTunes Genius, that will build recommended learning playlists for students.

18. All U.S. students will have access to online courses for Advanced Placement, high-level STEM courses, and any foreign language (this should happen next year, but it will take us five years to get out of our own way).

23. Second-generation online learning will replace courseware with adaptive components in a digital content library (objects, lessons, units, and sequences).

27. Most high school students will do most of their learning online and will attend a blended school.

28. More than one-third of all learning professionals will be in roles that do not exist today; more than 10% will be in organizations that do not exist today.

29. The higher ed funding bubble will burst, and free and low-cost higher education alternatives will displace a significant portion of third tier higher education (emphasis DSC).

37. There will be several DIY High options—online high schools with an engaging and intuitive merit badge sequence that will allow students to take ownership of and direct their own learning. They will still benefit from adult assessment, guidance, and mentorship but in a more student-directed fashion.

Tagged with: 1:1 • 21st century • 24x7x365 • assessment • blended learning • budgetary • change • digital learning • educational gaming • educational technology • emerging technologies • future • game-changing environment • hybrid learning • K-12 • learner profiles • Learning Agents • ocw • online learning • simulations • trends • virtual reality / worlds / learning

Tomorrow’s college

On 11/02/2010, in blended learning, colleges, community colleges, education technology, future of higher education, higher education, hybrid learning, online learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

Tomorrow’s college — from The Chronicle by Marc Parry
The classroom of the future features face-to-face, online, and hybrid learning. And the future is here.

Jennifer Black isn’t a fan of technology. Until college, she didn’t know much about online classes. If the stereotypical online student is a career-minded adult working full time, she’s the opposite—a dorm-dwelling, ballet-dancing, sorority-joining 20-year-old who throws herself into campus life here at the University of Central Florida.

Yet in the past year, the junior hospitality major has taken classes online, face to face, and in a blended format featuring elements of both. This isn’t unusual: More than half of the university’s 56,000 students will take an online or blended class this year, and nearly 2,700 are taking all three modes at once.

As online education goes mainstream, it’s no longer just about access for distant learners who never set foot in the student union. Web courses are rewiring what it means to be a “traditional” student at places like Central Florida, one of the country’s largest public universities. And UCF’s story raises a question for other colleges: Will this mash-up of online and offline learning become the new normal elsewhere, too?

Tagged with: blended learning • colleges • community college • educational technology • future of higher education • higher education • hybrid learning • online learning • universities

The need for second-order types of change…

On 10/22/2010, in blended learning, change, cost of getting a degree, hybrid learning, by Daniel Christian

The secret government plan to transform education — from EdNet News by Thomas W. Greaves

Tucked away on page 79 of the absolutely splendid National Educational Technology Plan 2010 is a gem known as Grand Challenge 4:

4.0: Identify and validate design principles for efficient and effective online learning systems and combined online and offline learning systems that produce content expertise and competencies equal to or better than those produced by the best conventional instruction in half the time at half the cost.

It is a gem because if it comes to pass, it will be truly transformative. It will have the power and potential to solve our educational woes, improve our national security and, over the long term, provide a major boost to the economy. It must be a secret because if people know about it, they are not talking about it.

Since the microcomputer revolution began in schools around 1980, educators have been looking forward to the day when computer technology would become transformative. However, even schools with a 1:1 student-computer ratio have failed to accomplish this goal.

The root cause of this lack of transformation is that in the vast majority of cases, we have employed first-order change rather than second order-change.

Our problem is analogous to the Pony Express problem. We can breed faster, stronger horses. We can do research to find better horse feed. We can require that letters be written on tissue paper. No matter what we do, there is a limit to the improvement we can get. It will still take ten days to move a letter from St. Joseph, Missouri, to San Francisco. No amount of tinkering with the system, not even the use of an electric saddle for the horse could cut the time from ten days to five days or to one day. Nor would any of these changes cut the cost of delivering a letter in half.

One common term that describes incremental improvement efforts is first-order change. The special horses of the Pony Express were a first-order change. The corresponding term describing transformative change is “second-order change.” Moving from horses to trains or trains to airplanes is an example of second-order change.

From DSC:
Also relevant here is a posting that I did (on my archived website) back from Dec 2008 entitled, The Forthcoming Walmart of Education.

Tagged with: blended learning • change • cost of getting an education • hybrid learning • Walmart of Education

Video primers re: e-teaching & learning

On 10/18/2010, in blended learning, education technology, hybrid learning, online learning, online media, teaching online, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Resource from George Siemens who mentions:

I recently encountered this group of 27 online teaching and learning video resources, featuring Curt Bonk. Each video runs approximately 10 minutes and serves as an introduction to key ideas in planning and delivery technology enhanced learning.

Tagged with: blended learning • educational technology • hybrid learning • instructional design • online learning • teaching online • web-based collaboration

Online + Face-to-Face: Succeeding with blending learning (from K12 and Aventa)

On 10/16/2010, in blended learning, face-to-face, future, hybrid learning, K-12 related, online learning, by Daniel Christian

Tagged with: blended learning • face-to-face • future • hybrid learning • K-12 • online learning

Lynda.com — well worth the investment!

On 10/01/2010, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, accessibility / UDL, Adobe, adult learning, animation, Apple, art, assistive technologies, Augmented Reality (AR), creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Google, graphics, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, hybrid learning, interactivity, interface design, learning ecosystem, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, music, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, podcasting, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, programming, RSS, simulations, storytelling, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, training / L&D, user experience (UX), user interface design, visualizing information, web design and production, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

We use Lynda.com and the feedback has been excellent. Back in 1997, I took a 1-day seminar from Lynda Weinman out at SFSU’s Multimedia Studies Program. I learned more from her in a few hours then I have in many courses. She knows how to make things very understandable…and she’s a great teacher. If she doesn’t know the topic, she selects people who know how to explain that topic in easy-to-understand terms.

So when I saw this item — Connect@NMC: Panel Discussion Led By Laurie Burruss of Lynda.com – Implementing Lynda.com Campus-Wide — I felt that I should pass it along.

Tagged with: Apple • corporate training / universities • digital audio • digital learning • digital storytelling • digital textbooks • digital video • educational technology • instructional design • learning ecosystem • Mobile learning • mobile technology • multimedia • student-related • teaching & learning • web design

Maintaining quality in blended learning: From classroom assessment to impact evaluation

On 09/21/2010, in blended learning, hybrid learning, quality, by Daniel Christian

Maintaining quality in blended learning: From classroom assessment to impact evaluation — from Educause

ELI’s online seminars offer an opportunity to hear from experts around the world on a specific teaching-and-learning-with-technology–related topic. The goal of this seminar is to examine one of the blended learning focus session topics in greater depth. With the help of the ELI community’s input, we’ve selected research and quality assurance of blended learning as the topic for our first online seminar.

With more faculty members teaching in the blended learning mode, effective course design is critical to maintaining quality while incorporating both face-to-face and online components. In this online seminar, participants will learn how to develop assignments that fit the learning objectives and align with the blended format of the course. In addition, participants will learn how course assignments can be used to provide evidence that students are meeting program goals. Finally, we’ll discuss the benefits of classroom-based research to evaluate the impact of technology on teaching and on students’ learning. Participants will learn how they can successfully accomplish scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) research and use it to improve course and program outcomes.

Tagged with: blended learning • hybrid learning • quality

San Francisco Flex Academcy

On 08/24/2010, in blended learning, face-to-face, game-changing environment, hybrid learning, K-12 related, online learning, by Daniel Christian

Also see:

San Francisco Flex Academy to Open Downtown This Fall — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
New Public Charter School Now Accepting Enrollments for Students in Grades 9-12
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — San Francisco Flex Academy (SF FLEX), an exciting new public charter high school and one of the state’s first full-time “hybrid” schools, will open this fall in downtown San Francisco. SF Flex is currently accepting enrollments for students in grades 9-12 and is expecting to start classes on Tuesday, September 7, 2010.

The school will offer both onsite classroom instruction with highly qualified, credentialed teachers and state-of-the-art online learning provided by K12 Inc., America’s largest provider of online school programs for students in kindergarten through high school. There is no tuition to attend this public charter school.

Blended learning -- the best of both worlds

Tagged with: blended learning • face-to-face • game-changing environment • hybrid learning • K-12 • online learning

Online collaboration: New innovations pave the way for convergence

On 08/17/2010, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, blended learning, change, changing business models, collaboration, convergence, dangers of the status quo, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, expectations, face-to-face, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, hybrid learning, innovation, interactivity, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, multimedia, online learning, online media, social learning / networks, technologies for your home, telecommunications, trends, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, webinars, by Daniel Christian

Online collaboration: New innovations pave the way for convergence — from prnewswire.com
Merger of television and computer takes giant step closer as innovative online tool suite is released

CALABASAS, Calif., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ — Anticipating the coming paradigm shift that will merge your television and your computer, NxtGenTV has just released the most cohesive system of online tools to facilitate the ultimate interactive communication platform. Four years of innovating has resulted in NetConference.com, an elegant, easy-to-use online meeting system that supports the diverse requirements of single users, small and medium size businesses as well as enterprise and nonprofit organizations. Creating a new opportunity for the global audience to interact online in even greater and more efficient ways is only one of the many benefits of building a social media broadcasting system that facilitates Communication, Collaboration, Presentation and Education.

An industry leader in online games, apps, widgets, banners and rich media development for major entertainment brands, The Illusion Factory created a new company, NxtGenTV to develop and patent cutting-edge online technologies such as shared synchronized visual media and other key innovations that will further blur the lines between computers and television. “We have been passionate about creating the cumulative new systems that will drive Convergence,” shares Brian Weiner, CEO of The Illusion Factory, “our creation of NxtGenTV will lead the push for truly interactive television.”

Tagged with: 21st century • blended learning • collaboration • convergence • digital audio • digital storytelling • digital video • distance ed • future • game-changing environment • global • hybrid learning • innovation • new media literacies • online learning • online media • social networking • student expectations • technologies for the home • telecommunications • trends • videoconferencing • web-based collaboration

Upcoming ELI event re: blended learning

On 08/13/2010, in blended learning, hybrid learning, by Daniel Christian

Taking the best of both “worlds” — a relevant graphic from DSC:

Let's take the best of both worlds -- online learning and face-to-face learning

Tagged with: blended learning • hybrid learning

From Questions to Concepts: Interactive Teaching in Physics

On 08/06/2010, in blended learning, face-to-face, hybrid learning, innovation, physics, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

From Questions to Concepts: Interactive Teaching in Physics — by Physics Professor Eric Mazur at Harvard

How can you engage your students and be sure they are learning the conceptual foundations of a lecture course? In From Questions to Concepts, Harvard University Professor Eric Mazur introduces Peer Instruction and Just-in-Time teaching — two innovative techniques for lectures that use in-class discussion and immediate feedback to improve student learning. Using these techniques in his innovative undergraduate physics course, Mazur demonstrates how lectures and active learning can be successfully combined. This video is also available as part of another DVD, Interactive Teaching, which contains advice on using peer instruction and just-in-time teaching to promote better learning. For more videos on teaching, visit http://bokcenter.harvard.edu

Tagged with: blended learning • face-to-face • hybrid learning • innovation • physics • teaching & learning

Michigan’s first virtual charter school selects downtown Grand Rapids site, accepting applications

On 07/29/2010, in blended learning, hybrid learning, K-12 related, Michigan, online learning, virtual K-12 schools, by Daniel Christian

Michigan’s first virtual charter school selects downtown Grand Rapids site, accepting applications — from rapidgrowthmedia.com

A virtual charter school sponsored by Grand Valley State University will welcome its first students on September 7 at what school leaders say is its first Michigan location – a former office space at 678 Front Ave. NW.

Michigan Virtual Charter Academy, operated by Herndon, Va.-based K12, Inc., will launch with a curriculum geared for high school dropouts ages 17 to 21, offering onsite and online learning in half-day formats.

“It’s a hybrid blend of onsite and online learning, and we’ll have two shifts of students,” says Randall Greenway, vice president of school development. “This was a promising location and it’s close to where we believe our students reside and work. It also has public transportation nearby, and that’s a big part of it.”

Tagged with: blended learning • hybrid learning • K-12 • Michigan • online learning • virtual schools

From DSC:
For those of you involved with creating learning labs, smart classrooms, group study areas, etc. — or for those who want to enable more efficient group collaboration within your classrooms — you need to check out Steelcase’s Media:Scape product line.

One of the pieces of this configuration that I love is that they have created an easy-to-use interface in a puck-like device. What I want to see happen is for students to pull up to a movable/reconfigurable table, connect their device, and click the puck to “play” their media for the class (without interrupting the flow of the class).

Also, one monitor on the “totem” can be used for one set of information/data — or even a remote speaker via videoconferencing for example — and the other monitor can be used for someone else’s data/desktop.

Here are some images for you: