by Kim Loomis | Jan 27, 2020 | Blended Learning, Personalized Learning
Let’s talk about the path to developing a successful digital learning program. Mike O’Callaghan Middle School just completed its third year of adoption of blended learning. When speaking with the principal, Scott Fligor, he shared a 40.5 growth in student performance in 2018-19, the highest in the District. I remember the day that Principal Fligor came to me and said, “My school is at the bottom. We have nowhere to go but up. I’ve heard about this thing called blended learning. Can you help us?” My advice was to go slow to go fast. The plan was to create a small pilot as a proof point with some incoming sixth-graders, then roll up a new grade each year. This was at the same time we rolled out the 7 Steps to Program Design and now we celebrate with a new infographic. See Roadmap for Blended Personalized Learning infographic below. It started small, yet with a BANG! Check out the 2016 i3Learn Academy promo video. As stated by the assistant principal in the video, “The proof is in the pudding…the students in the blended classrooms were growing academically faster at a higher rate than in the traditional classroom.” Principal Fligor could not ignore that the data was showing greater academic gains in the handful of blended classrooms and felt that he had to give every student the blended classroom advantage. He had staff visit the blended classrooms to notice the instructional differences. He brought in professional development for staff to transition pedagogy mindset when partnering with digital curriculum using the CIA of Blended Learning, to help his staff with a...
by Kim Loomis | Jan 7, 2020 | Blended Learning, Digital Learning Models, Online Learning, Personalized Learning, Program Design, Research, Uncategorized
When students struggle in the traditional classroom and absences become daunting, creating larger and deeper learning gaps, where can educators turn? One way to help struggling students is by providing opportunities for success in different learning environments. Past practices often led students away from neighborhood schools, to alternative placement educational facilities. Yet, not all students that struggle need such a drastic remedy. Access to digital curriculum in a comprehensive school setting can be an excellent way to create opportunities to thrive. Digital curriculum is the first piece of the CIA of Blended Learning (digital Curriculum, guided Instruction, authentic Assessment), yet it’s important to ensure that educators understand the partnership between digital content and teacher-led guided instruction. Otherwise establishments create digital learning environments that isolate and remove high quality instructional practices, such as teacher and peer interaction, plus they tend to lower standards/expectations. This is often seen in credit recovery programs across the nation, as documented by Nat Malkus in his whitepaper Second Chance or Second Track (September 2018), were second chance credit recovery becomes a lower-level pathway of isolated, independent study programs designed for struggling learners. When we lower expectations, we are creating a lower track of students, many of whom were struggling to begin with. The TNTP whitepaper Opportunity Myth (2018) notes how schools and teachers are letting students down with low level learning opportunities that just don’t meet the standards. Yet, we must cultivate classrooms where struggling students learn how to take ownership of their learning. Where students can track and manage their learning outcomes in a digital platform, that allows them to pick up where they...
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