Is your Blended Learning Model built on a House of Cards?

With so many folks jumping on the blending learning wagon, there is a tendency to put the cart before the horse, focusing on selecting digital content and determining the BL model before ensuring a solid infrastructure is in place.  Francisco Castillo-Fierro, Director of Blended Learning at Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School in California gets it.  Check out his piece, "How to Build a Rock-Solid Blended Learning Infrastructure - Avoid the biggest disasters of new blended schools by getting these 3 things right. 

https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-03-26-how-to-build-a-rock-solid-blended-learning-infrastructure/

Looking for Digital Content? KISS (Keep It Synthesized Stupid)

     Are you in the market for digital content to support your instructional programs?  Well, KISS (Keep It Synthesized Stupid). By synthesized, I am referring to the dictionary definition, “combining (a number of things) into a coherent whole.” Digital content should not be an add-on or an afterthought to the teacher’s plans for an individual student or group of students.  The teacher’s goals must always be “driving the bus” when considering the use of digital content.  That content needs to complement, extend, or enhance the teacher’s instruction. Otherwise, why bother? You might as well be pushing worksheets (or as I prefer to call them – shut-up sheets) at kids.

     John Rice, Manager of Blended Learning for the DC Public School System, gets it.  His recent post in EdSurge News outlines a thoughtful four-step process for selecting digital content (Determine goals; Which features are important; See it in action; and Make sure users approve).  I might add a fifth – Make sure it works!  At the risk of sounding a little pretentious, I think John’s second step would be enhanced with the use of an objective, validated tool to evaluate the quality of the digital content, like maybe the Evaluation Rubric for Mobile Applications? (see earlier posts).

     You can read John’s piece at this link:

https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-03-05-tales-from-the-oregon-trail-traversing-the-digital-content-terrain