Blended learning is so much more than simply using technology as a teaching and learning tool. This, however, is a place to start, which is where I started my relationship with technology in education. As a student teacher I planned and delivered many of my lessons using PowerPoint and tried my best to use video and audio to enrich my lessons in order to attend to multiple learning needs.
As a teacher-on-call I brought my own projector to share some of my lessons and to access my favourite videos to use spontaneously or as motivation for my students to finish what the teacher had prepared for them to complete while away. This strategy worked marvelously!
I was excited when I received my first teaching assignment and there was a projector and a document reader in my classroom. I was able to bring my own laptop and iPad to share content and inspire students. In some ways I felt like I was successful in engaging my students however one thing bothered me: how was this different from me being the sage on the stage? Students were engaged with the content I was presenting to them in a variety of ways but they weren't actively interactively with the content nor were they using technology to demonstrate their own learning or to produce anything meaningful. I was able to identify this problem but I didn't know what to do about it. A few months later I received Mary O'Neill's invitation to OLTD and I've been working on how to actively involve my students using technology in a blending learning situation ever since!
My next teaching contract was in a Kindergarten French Immersion class. The school itself was relatively low-tech but I was determined to do my best to "blend" my teaching practice. I mainly delivered content for the first part of the year but then started to get creative when I partnered with a big buddy class whose teacher was also interested in technology as a way to support learning. We combined out limited computer lab time and created projects for the students using online learning tools like Storybird.com and other tools to demonstrate learning. I shared student work on our class blog and my 5 year old students became published writers and artists. The motivation was incredible!
My kindergarten contract was coming to an end when I was offered a position with Navigate's Fine Arts eCademy (FAE). I was excited for the opportunity to teach in a blended learning environment. I came to realize that blended for FAE meant three days F2F at school and two days at home where parents were in charge of facilitating numeracy and literacy learning. My job is to support this home learning by providing resources and support for parents online and through print-based resources. As I started planning my Kindergarten - Grade 2 program I was excited to blend my program by using a variety of online tools for learning both at home and at school. One of my tasks is to personalize learning programs for each student which has become a creative challenge. I've learned that while some families fully embrace all my suggestions and recommendations, others want none of it! There are families who pick and chose what works for the child and family. I'm learning to accept that "blended learning" looks different child-to-child and family-to-family. It has become a creative challenge to figure out what works for each family - practically and philosophically - and tailor a learning program to suit the learner's needs.
When students are F2F for our three days together I also try to integrate technology to support and personalise learning but still find I do more content delivery using technology than student-driven projects which demonstrate their personalised learning journey. It is easy for my to find engaging content and even apps which develop creative and critical problem-solving skills. My challenge with blending learning at the early primary level is to teach and practice the skills so these 5 - 7 year olds can be natural producers using technology instead of passive consumers of content.
As a teacher-on-call I brought my own projector to share some of my lessons and to access my favourite videos to use spontaneously or as motivation for my students to finish what the teacher had prepared for them to complete while away. This strategy worked marvelously!
I was excited when I received my first teaching assignment and there was a projector and a document reader in my classroom. I was able to bring my own laptop and iPad to share content and inspire students. In some ways I felt like I was successful in engaging my students however one thing bothered me: how was this different from me being the sage on the stage? Students were engaged with the content I was presenting to them in a variety of ways but they weren't actively interactively with the content nor were they using technology to demonstrate their own learning or to produce anything meaningful. I was able to identify this problem but I didn't know what to do about it. A few months later I received Mary O'Neill's invitation to OLTD and I've been working on how to actively involve my students using technology in a blending learning situation ever since!
My next teaching contract was in a Kindergarten French Immersion class. The school itself was relatively low-tech but I was determined to do my best to "blend" my teaching practice. I mainly delivered content for the first part of the year but then started to get creative when I partnered with a big buddy class whose teacher was also interested in technology as a way to support learning. We combined out limited computer lab time and created projects for the students using online learning tools like Storybird.com and other tools to demonstrate learning. I shared student work on our class blog and my 5 year old students became published writers and artists. The motivation was incredible!
My kindergarten contract was coming to an end when I was offered a position with Navigate's Fine Arts eCademy (FAE). I was excited for the opportunity to teach in a blended learning environment. I came to realize that blended for FAE meant three days F2F at school and two days at home where parents were in charge of facilitating numeracy and literacy learning. My job is to support this home learning by providing resources and support for parents online and through print-based resources. As I started planning my Kindergarten - Grade 2 program I was excited to blend my program by using a variety of online tools for learning both at home and at school. One of my tasks is to personalize learning programs for each student which has become a creative challenge. I've learned that while some families fully embrace all my suggestions and recommendations, others want none of it! There are families who pick and chose what works for the child and family. I'm learning to accept that "blended learning" looks different child-to-child and family-to-family. It has become a creative challenge to figure out what works for each family - practically and philosophically - and tailor a learning program to suit the learner's needs.
When students are F2F for our three days together I also try to integrate technology to support and personalise learning but still find I do more content delivery using technology than student-driven projects which demonstrate their personalised learning journey. It is easy for my to find engaging content and even apps which develop creative and critical problem-solving skills. My challenge with blending learning at the early primary level is to teach and practice the skills so these 5 - 7 year olds can be natural producers using technology instead of passive consumers of content.