I agree that blended learning has strong pedagogical reasons to be in today’s classrooms; learning is personalized (path, pace and course choices), engaging and frees up the classroom teacher to work with smaller, cohesive groups. However, as a classroom teacher, there are hurdles that need to be addressed before transiting to a blended classroom. The purpose of this week’s blog is to discuss some of those hurdles and then propose options as to problem solve the discussed concerns.
In your present circumstances, what level of problem is most urgent to solve and why?
I currently teach Science to high school students in a brick and mortar school. My goal for enrolling in the OLTD program is to implement more technology into my classroom. Since we started this class, I am more motivated to start to creating a blended learning environment for my students. However, at my school in Abbotsford, there are some definite hurdles that need to be overcome.
The large issue at my school is an Architectural problem. Access to technology is lacking and to solve this problem, devices such as desktop computer, laptops or tablets would need to be purchases. For this to be achieved my administrative team, district technical support and the tech team at Yale would all need to be on board. If the devices were purchased, changes would be also need to be made at the school level. Labs would need to be allocated somewhere within the school and then some sign up system would need to be created. Finally, an individual would be needed to insure upkeep and maintenance of the devices.With all these steps and costs associated with adding new technology, you may ask if new devices really necessary? I would still say, wholeheartedly, yes.
Yale Secondary is a rather large school with over 1 200 students. We have a total of 5 computer labs within the building. At first glance, that might seem ample, but with 2 of those labs being used on a full time bases to teach classes such a planning, yearbook, programming and graphic arts, the remaining classes do without . As classroom teachers, we are now down to having only 90 computers left to access. Of those remaining computers, 30 are unusable because we are currently undergoing seismic upgrading. And now, the last 60 computers are in the library, which needs to be booked in advance. Those computers are in high demand and a set of those computers are laptops that constantly have issues connecting to the Wi-Fi at our school.
To overcome this issue, some teachers at my school are piloting a BYOD (bring your own device) program. In some cases, this program works well because some departments have access to a classroom set of ipads and the school then sets up a ‘hot spot’ within the class to assure that Wi-Fi is reliable. Other teachers have tried to have students bring in the device, such as a laptop from home, to use at the school. These teachers are struggling more at implementing a blended classroom because fewer of the students have access to a laptop to bring to school and these classes are still working in the library so that all students could have access to technology.
As a staff, we have approached our administrators and have asked them to increase the number of devices that all students can access and a more reliable Wi-Fi signal that will allow teachers and students simultaneous access to the internet without bogging the signal down. The response to both situations was not favourable. Basically, there are no extra funds to buy more devices for the school and it wouldn't be affordable/possible to create an internet signal what could sustain 1,300 users for the entire day.
Based on the diagram from our text, this issue could be considered an Architecture project. Increasing the number of devices, would require involvement of teachers, department heads, administrators and district staff. Because of these financial and technological issues are too far reaching for a classroom teacher, I would avoid blending models that require a large portion of a student’s day using a computer. For this reason, I would blenderize my class by using the flipped model. This would reduce the number of students trying to access technology at school. Classroom time would then be freed to check for understanding of that day’s learning goals and also allow for more hands on applications of the concepts by doing lab work. Given my current teaching situation, I find that the flip model would most benefit my students given the lack of access to technology at my school.
What type of team would you need in order to solve it?
To implement a flip model of blended learning, it would require a functional team. This team would be working with a single step, in transitioning from face to face teaching to the flipped model without impacting any other part of the school. The team would not require the interdependence on any other group in the school and there would be no disruption to the current teaching practices in my school.
Who would you place on the team, and who would lead it?
Members of the team could consist of teachers at my school who are experiencing the same frustrations as I am,- lack of access to technology, but a desire to implement it in their current teaching practices. These teachers could then attend team meetings, attend similar professional development sessions and share learning experiences of implementing a flipped model. For this team, a ‘leader’ wouldn't necessarily be required. We would be working together as a team. Nevertheless, it would be helpful to have someone in charge of keeping track of meeting times/locations and someone to help disseminate information amongst the team member. Any member of the group could volunteer for this. Otherwise, the team would work together at achieving the same goals.
Here is another diagram that helps explains the features of the various kinds of teams from Harvard Business Review (https://hbr.org/2000/03/meeting-the-challenge-of-disruptive-change). It focuses on how the different types of teams fit into the company's values and processes.