District Administration - October 2011 - (Page 42)

Building a Blended Learning Program based books, learning from video games, and taking part in inquiry-based online explorations. And they may have up to five different online and face-to-face teachers. “Demonstrating knowledge [is] more like earning a merit badge,” Patrick says. An ongoing challenge of any blended learning model is to maintain a high level of quality, she adds. “We need to guard diligently against people who just scan textbooks for their online course content.” Still new, blended learning models remain works in progress for most districts, says Horn. In “The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning,” he breaks down blended learning into six models. • In the Face-to-Face Driver, an in-person teacher delivers most of the curriculum but integrates online learning in individual student cases for remediation or supplemental support as needed. Often this involves students working on computers in a lab or in the back of the classroom during regular class periods. • In the Rotation model, students rotate on a fixed schedule between traditional face-to-face classroom instruction and a self-paced online learning environment, which may or may not take place on site. • The Flex model, which is commonly used for dropouts and credit recovery programs, uses an online learning platform to deliver most of the curriculum, but on-site teachers provide support through individual or small group sessions. • The Online Lab uses an online platform that delivers the entire course, but within a brick-and-mortar setting, and is supervised by paraprofessionals. Students often take such programs with traditional courses within the regular school schedule. • In the Self-Blend model, students supplement their brick-and-mortar learning with one or more fully online, remote classes. • The Online Driver model comprises an online platform and teacher, but it also includes optional or mandatory face-to-face student check-ins with teachers or mentors. Start with a Purpose For districts considering implementing or ramping up a blended learning program or 42 October 2011 A California non-profit benefit corporation, Flex Public Schools, governs the San Francisco Flex Academy, which is a public charter school for high school students in the Bay area. Students attend the school in downtown San Francisco all week long for instruction that is delivered online and offline. Above, a California teacher works one-on-one with a student. moving from a fully online to a blended program, the place to start is with goals. Kurt LeVasseur, director of online learning and principal of Boulder Universal online public school in the Boulder (Colo.) Valley School District, says the district began its blended learning credit recovery program three years ago because it was losing students living in remote mountain areas where snow days prevent regular attendance, and the Face-to-Face Driver model to help teachers differentiate learning in the classroom. The program offers over 150 middle and high school courses, half of them credit recovery and half supplemental, to 430 students. “Teachers who meet with kids are the ones who really motivate students.” 150 high school students a year to fully online programs run by vendors or outof-district academies, in part due to students’ health ailments, bullying concerns, school phobias or the need for a flexible schedule because of a part-time job. The district chose to go with the content provider Aventa (owned by distance learning provider K12) for quick access to the kind of digital content that would be extremely time-consuming to create in-house, LeVasseur says. The district also chose to go with a company-provided, online teacher. “We had to get in the game as quickly as possible,” he says. Boulder’s program offers students a choice of four of the six models of blended learning, including Online Lab and SelfBlend for credit recovery, Rotation for —Beth Rattie, director of high school education, Osceola School District In Spotsylvania (Va.) County Schools, Jan Streich, director of instructional technology and professional learning, says the district’s three-year-old blended learning program was designed to help students recover credits, help transfers catch up, and ensure that suspended and expelled students didn’t fall behind. Like Boulder, Spotsylvania’s program uses the Online Lab model for credit recovery, with all five district high schools offering labs with computers and a paraprofessional on site. The district’s other blended learning program targets students with behavioral problems who attend school in a separate brick-andmortar facility until their suspensions are up. This program follows the Flex model, with credentialed teachers supporting students with individual and small-group District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - October 2011

District Administration - October 2011
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Transportation Update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Building a Blended Learning Program
How Are Science Fairs Fairing?
A New Age for Algebra
Early College High Schools
Changing of the Guard in Florida
CIO News
How Much Computing Power Do You Need?
An Unconventional Approach to 1:1
New Books
Problem/ Solution
Research Center
Product Focus
New Products
Professional Opinion
Going Mobile
Online Edge

District Administration - October 2011