Highlights from the session by Morten Fahlvik and John Leighton at the International Visible Learning Conference in Carlsbad, CA.
Contributed by Kimberly Huesing, Director of Elementary Education, Carlsbad Unified School District
Technology integration is key to student interaction in our schools these days. The intentional use of technology to increase the “Learning Effect” was the pivotal question answered during the session, The Blended Classroom. The session was interactive and presented demonstration models as well. In order to engage the group, the presenter, Morten Fahlvik, began with a poll of the audience using an easily set up text system. We were asked if we have implemented blended classroom strategies, and at which level of service are we in education. This is a step all teachers could use as an anonymous survey of student knowledge/experiences in a certain area to pin point learning or understand the learning context. Morten Fhalvik asked the people in the audience to evaluate the best qualities of the physical classroom and the best qualities of the online classroom. The issue was not which one was best, but how to reach the best outcome in each setting.
Practical application and examples of blended projects were shared by John Leighton. As a classroom practitioner, John shared how a trial project for family lineage grew into a true internet research, collaboration, and digital presentation project. John shared how the students worked on individual projects but worked together to share best practices on research and presentation. They teamed up to solve problems and found similarities in backgrounds that were not initially visible. The most memorable immigration story was of a student who was THE most recent immigrant in the school who shared the economic, historic, and political reasons for migration of the people in the country and his family. John explained that while he purposefully did not have a rubric with which to grade students, was done intentionally because each year the students exceeded what he thought they could and would produce.
