Due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, many schools became familiar with remote learning and then some form of blended learning. However, schools noticed some advantages of blended learning with school returns during the pandemic. Whether looking to build out a more personalized approach to learning or wanting to give their students a more technology-forward curriculum, blended learning is a unique strategy that can easily fold into a standard in-person model.
Lee Phillips is an education consultant with EdisonLearning and has been at the forefront of research in education and blended learning strategies. In a conversation with Lee, we discussed blended learning and how to separate it from pandemic learning, and as always, Lee provided some fantastic insights for us.Lee focuses on separating blended learning from pandemic learning through assessment. What do schools want for a technology-forward approach? What do we do summatively to ensure we're assessing in the right way? This is an essential question for educators looking to add a blended learning strategy into their curriculum.
As always, Lee takes a research-backed methodology to this type of assessment. Lee’s research-focused experience in blended learning led him to focus on five pillars to access blended learning strategies. Regarding education modeling, these objectives allow a school to understand how blended learning can fold into their curriculum, professional development, and achievement goals.
- Your vision for learning. What is our goal, and how do we get our stakeholders involved in the process?
- Teacher quality. What do we do in schools to ensure we monitor teacher quality effectively and do the best we can for them?
- Teacher development. Are we targeting the most significant aspects of teaching in the 21st century and assessment practices?
- Students' skill development. How do we best balance soft and competence-based skills? What modalities will we use to achieve that?
- Curriculum. How do we map and model a curriculum over time, and what does that look like?
In this assessment, educators will find the supplemental nature of blended learning. A major fear of educators is that blended learning will somehow negate the teacher's work, but in Lee’s framework, we see that blended learning is a tool to enhance the teacher. In doing so, teachers have access to a world of endless possibilities for instruction, including data-driven instruction, engaging activities, and options for student advancement.
If you have any ideas or thoughts regarding blended learning, visit: join the discussion on Twitter @Edisonlearning.
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