Six years ago, I became the technology teacher and librarian for a
ECE-5 elementary school. The move from middle school caught me by
surprise. I wasn't prepared for the needs of my younger students and
teaching students the skills to access new technology became a daunting
task. I failed often. It was frustrating to scramble around the room to
view each student's issues with their individual computers. Many days
ended in exhaustion and defeat. I desperately needed a solution to
teaching technology (or any content for that matter). Over the last six
years, I developed ways to teach students of any age through the
following steps of blended learning. I'll devote my next several blog
posts revealing all the listed steps below to teach effectively within a
blended learning environment. Each post is meant to be a "how-to" guide
through the blended learning process so one can become more comfortable
with the process.
Steps to an EFFECTIVE blended learning environment:
1) Learning Management System
2) Online/In-person Collaboration
3) Direct Instruction w/ screencasts based on feedback cycles (matched with aggressive monitoring)
4) Online checks for understanding
5) Online feedback; face-to-face feedback cycles
6) Differentiation through online groups (via LMS), scaffolded tasks, student voice and choice
7) Inquiry based lessons
