Blended learning is the topic of my innovation plan. It is essentially the combination of online learning and face-to-face learning. I am passionate about this topic as it something I have been implementing in my classroom for five years now and have found it to be successful among my students. I believe this instructional strategy could have a major positive impact on students if most, if not, all of a student’s teachers used one of the many models of blended learning in the classroom. Through my revised literature review, I was able to discover what the research says about blended learning and the lessons that could be learned globally from it's implementation in other schools.
What Research Says
Based on research findings, blended learning increases engagement, personalizes learning, and follows technology trends. Researchers have proved that flipped classroom, a model of blended learning, results in higher student engagement and learning (Sahni, 2019). Blended learning also personalizes learning by providing support to students with lower abilities, provide the opportunity for acceleration for gifted and talented students, and developing independent learning skills (Boulton, 2008). Lastly, the ECAR study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology shows that student use of technology is continuing to increase as well as the opinion that is it important for academic success (Galanek, Gierdowski, & Brooks, 2018).
Global Lessons Learned-What Worked
After reading multiple case studies, I was able to gain insight on how to proceed with my innovation plan after using the Delta Plus Tool to evaluate what worked, what could have been done better, and the lessons to be applied (Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness, 2013). I discovered that having leadership that includes teachers’ voices in the implementation process as well as providing training in ICT skills are valuable for successful implementation. In one study, several schools across the globe either provided ICT training or incentivized teachers to receive training on their own (Venezky). Flexibility and personalization also proved successful considering most students of 15 different K-12 flipped classroom had positive attitudes toward the blended learning model because they were able to pause, rewind, re-watch lectures, gain more interaction with classmates, and receive more individual attention from teacher (Lo & Hew, 2017).
Global Lessons Learned-What Could Have Been Done Better?
One scenario I learned to be cautious of is going too far towards the online side of the blended learning spectrum as data shows that online education does not provide enough opportunities to build a sense of community (Li, 2017). It is also vital to have a vision and purpose behind the technology being used otherwise the initiative will fail like LAUSD’s one-to-one iPad initiative when the technology was chosen before determining exactly what it would be used for (Lapowsky, 2017). Lastly, creating an infrastructure that can support my initiative is imperative in order for my initiative to be sustainable. When teachers do not have the proper tools, reliable Internet connection, or technical support, they are less likely to use anything involving ICT skills (Venezky).
Applying These Lessons to My Innovation Plan
Leadership needs to take into consideration the voice of those who will actually be implementing the blended learning in their classrooms as well as provide ample opportunities and ongoing support to meet them where they’re at with their level of ICT skills. In my innovation plan, I will be adding a survey of teachers for them to assess themselves on their ICT skills. This will help to know how to structure professional learning opportunities as well as get a feel for their confidence level and attitude towards blended learning which in turn will help me with leading organizational change.
My innovation plan will also be revised to focus on helping teachers understand how to choose the appropriate technology for their desired results as well as how to find the right balance of online and face-to-face learning. Teachers need to have vision and purpose for the technology use as well as know when they are using too much technology that could prevent students from having a sense of community among their peers and teachers.
Finally, I am revising the infrastructure of my innovation plan by taking a closer look at the devices and support. While my school may already have enough devices, the question now is do the devices function properly? If not, we do not have the proper staffing for the teachers to get immediate help which can in turn prevent them from using the technology in the first place. I also will be advocating for an instructional technology specialist specifically for our campus as we only have one position like that for the entire district. Having an instructional technology specialist specifically for our campus would provide teachers with more support on implementation and learning ICT skills.
References
Boulton, H. (2008). Managing e-Learning: What are the Real Implications for Schools? The Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 6(1), 11–18. Retrieved from www.ejel.org
Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness. (2013). How to get quick feedback with the plus delta tool [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADEd0IIswpQ&feature=emb_logo.
Galanek, Joseph D., Dana C. Gierdowski, and D. Christopher Brooks. ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2018. Research report. Louisville, CO: ECAR, October 2018.
Lapowsky, I. (2017, June 3). What Schools Must Learn From LA's iPad Debacle. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2015/05/los-angeles-edtech/
Li, L. (2017). Method to Foster Sense of Community among Students in K-12 Online Education. Proceedings of the 2017 3rd International Conference on Economics, Social Science, Arts, Education and Management Engineering (ESSAEME 2017). doi: 10.2991/essaeme-17.2017.247
Lo, C. K., & Hew, K. F. (2017). A critical review of flipped classroom challenges in K-12 education: Possible solutions and recommendations for future research. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 12(1), 4.
Sahni, J. (2019). Does Blended Learning Enhance Student Engagement? Evidence from Higher Education. Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 2019, 1–14. doi: 10.5171/2019.121518
Venezky, R. (n.d.). ICT in Innovative Schools: Case Studies of Change and Impacts. OECD. Retrieved from https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5c082f78d4ba4/2844351?response-content-disposition=inline; filename*=UTF-8''ICT%20in%20Innovative%20Schools-%20Case%20Studies%20of%20Change%20and%20Impacts1.pdf&response-content-type=application/pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200509T220352Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLTYPZRQMY/20200509/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=5a71c67419d39957a9b490024c413360b0841623696fb49eb9ae581ddfe7378c