Digital Learning & Leading
Blended Learning Innovation Plan
One of the key components in education is to prepare students for life beyond high school; however, the traditional school format doesn’t always lend itself to such expectations. I believe the solution is that we provide students the opportunity to develop skills with less restrictive opportunities via blended learning environments. After researching the positive effects of implementing blended learning environments, I discovered that it has the potential to provide a personalized learning path, increase student engagement, and close both academic and opportunity gaps. On this page, you will find evidence of my research, proposal, and implementation outline for my plan to pilot blended learning on my campus.
In my proposal, I am advocating for the transition to blended learning courses at Coble Middle School. I foresee ownership of learning being transferred to our scholars, truly personalized learning and the development of digital citizenship and soft skills necessary for college and career readiness. With my principal's support, I know that our campus will create endless opportunities for our scholars.
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Through my literature review, I discovered several articles that provide evidence of the many benefits of blended learning. There is significant data, from all over the world, that showcase increased student engagement and achievement in a variety of blended courses, across all grade levels. An additional advantage to the literature review was the amount of support I discovered to overcome the inevitable roadblocks of transforming the learning environment and the incorporation of technology.
In my outline, I have composed a timeline of how a piloting team of volunteers will work together to transform various courses into blended learning environments. Our greatest considerations will be our campus goals, mentoring and modeling for students and staff, and progress tracking. The plan is laid out in a "Plan, Do, Study, Act" continuum spectrum over a period of 2 years. With consistency and dedication to accomplishing our goals, my team of innovative educators will transform our campus and establish a new norm for education at Coble Middle School. Moreover, our scholars will become better prepared for a foreseen future of distance learning college courses and prerequisites of technological skills for careers of all kinds.
I have developed a blended learning professional learning plan to provide support for our staff. Blended learning is the key that takes the limits off of learning for students and adults. My ultimate goal for altering our format of PL at JCMS is to make learning more engaging and enjoyable for our teachers, which ultimately creates more enjoyable learning experiences for our students. By incorporating blended models for PL, teachers will acquire a better understanding of BL while experiencing personalized learning.
To learn more about integrating ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), such as blended learning, explore this list of literature. The following books and articles discuss the ins and outs of transforming to a digital learning environment.
Edutopia provides a list of tips and resources for transitioning to a blended learning environment. In this article, they provide links to numerous videos and articles written over the topic of blended learning.