Students at the Tower School in Marblehead had their hands on some coveted technology this week as part of the school’s tablet computer pilot program launched this spring.

At the independent elementary school, students are learning several subjects while playing with brand new iPads. Tower’s tablet program stems from the work of the school’s Technology Task Force, which has identified ways in which the school can be forward-thinking, flexible, and inventive in the rapidly expanding realm of learning technology. 

Third-grade teacher Nancy McCarthy, fifth-grade teacher Russell Wells, and sixth-grade teacher Webb Thompson are just three of the teachers participating in the program. McCarthy’s classroom was hushed in concentration as students played a Jeopardy-style game on their iPads to test their knowledge of national parks. Wells’ science students used their tablets to graph the bounce height, stretch distance, and other physical characteristics of glubber, a polymer similar to Silly Putty. Students in Thompson’s class watched a slideshow of pictures and maps related to their homework. 

Read the full article from Boston.com here

Even as it "disruptively" transforms American education, blended learning is itself being slowly reshaped into new and distinctive forms.

A report released this week identified six emerging models for blended learning in K-12, ranging from guided online instruction in the classroom to "self-blended" models where students take courses a la carte.

The report, "The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning: Profiles of Emerging Models," detailed blended learning programs that illustrate emerging trends in hybrid online and classroom-based instruction. It was authored by the Innosight Institute, a research firm focused on education and healthcare, and co-produced with the Charter School Growth Fund, a group that invests in charter school management organizations.

Despite the unique nature of each individual program studied, the researchers identified six "distinct clusters" of blended learning models that shared some common characteristics, all of which appear to be gaining adherents.

The group defined blended learning as "any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace."

The six models identified in the report included:

1. The "face-to-face driver" model, in which a teacher in a traditional classroom instructional setting employs online learning for remediation or supplemental instruction;
2. The "rotation: model, in which students move back and forth between online and classroom instruction;
3. "Flex," a model in which the curriculum is delivered primarily through an online platform, with teachers providing onsite support;
4. The "online lab" approach, wherein an online course is delivered in a physical classroom or computer lab;
5. "Self-blend," a model in which students choose on their own which courses they take online to supplement their schools' offerings; and
6. The "online driver" model, where the courses are primarily online and physical facilities are used only for extracurricular activities, required check-ins, or similar functions.

According to the report's authors, these models are helping to "disrupt" traditional education in ways unlike technologies that came earlier.

"Will the rise of online learning into brick-and-mortar schools be different from the appearance of previous education technologies?" the report asked. "Calculators, overhead projectors, electronic whiteboards, and online textbooks all enhanced the classroom as add-ons, but they sustained rather than transformed the conventional structure. Even the aggressive deployment of computers in schools has not transformed classrooms.... In contrast, as countless people have noted, online learning has the potential to be a disruptive force that will transform the factory-like, monolithic structure that has dominated America's schools into a new model that is student-centric, highly personalized for each learner, and more productive."

The complete report provides details on 40 individual K-12 blended learning programs from around the country, with notes on the blended learning model employed, technology used in the program, history, funding, and results.

Innosight has also established an online database for compiling data on blended programs.

Further details, the complete report, and a digest report can be accessed free of charge on the Innosight Institute's education portal here.

The full article appears here from TheJournal.com

Now more than ever, the world of technology is expanding at an astounding rate. New mediums for communication are constantly becoming available to us and industries of all kinds are shuffling to find their place and potential. More often than not, the many brilliant minds behind our exciting technological concepts, products, and services begin with one very crucial component: The exposure and ability to “think out of the box” in a creative and purposeful way. It’s become a standard expectation that teachers in both lower and higher education should be extensively knowledgeable in computers and harness the ability to effectively integrate technology in the classroom.

It’s evident that these new technological developments are helping educators surpass the text-based, lecture learning style and truly engages students who may understand material in other delivery styles and techniques. In the following five areas, I discuss the potential of technology as it relates to improving the styles and channels of learning that have shown tremendous growth in recent years.

Continue reading on Examiner.com: http://www.examiner.com/technology-education-in-detroit/innovators-rejoice-using-technology-to-support-creative-minds-the-classroom#ixzz1KxFYIt4U

When Crystal Beach came to Lakeview Academy two years ago, the students hopped online and tried to dig up her history on Google.

Then, the teacher turned the tables on them.

“What are people going to find when they Google you?” she asked her students.

Beach creatively embraces technology in her English classes, and her innovation recently won her an Emerging Leaders award from the International Society for Technology in Education. The 27-year-old teacher was one of five recipients selected from a pool of national and international applicants.

“She is not afraid to use whatever is cutting edge nationally and she makes a real effort to make sure that she’s on the cusp of what’s going on in technology,” Lakeview Principal John Kennedy said. “I taught English for years. And what she brings to the classroom is almost beyond what I could have even imagined.”

Beach, who teaches 10th, 11th and 12th grades, said her approach to implementing technology in her classroom is based in challenging, motivating and engaging her students.

Instead of writing traditional book reports, her students created video book trailers, in the style of movie trailers, which summarized their readings but also analyzed deeper themes.

“I want them thinking critically about the transitions they’re including, the font choices they’re including, the color selection, the music,” Beach said. “All of that is tying into their analysis of 
that story.”

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Hot sauce and peppermint hearts may sound like an unusual food pairing but to grade schoolers, it’s a perfect Valentine’s Day gift for a dragon. So are fireproof Valentine cards and a fireproof surfboard.

It’s story time at the Discovery Centre, a school located at the top of a lift in the resort mountain village of Sun Peaks. Teacher Jillian Schmalz is reading Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s Valentine for a Dragon to the K-3 students. The students are listening raptly. Their lively imaginations are fed as they’re introduced to a peculiar love story involving a demon and a dragon in a book about accepting people’s individuality.

It’s been months since a group of parents banded together to form a school in the community. If you look at the children now, they seem to be adapting very well to this new form of instruction.

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