The document discusses blended learning, which combines face-to-face instruction with online and mobile learning. It defines blended learning as using a variety of environments, including synchronous online interactions as well as asynchronous mobile learning. The document explores why blended learning is used, what it may look like in classroom examples, and how to design blended learning experiences through integrating interactive materials and technology tools to support student collaboration and inquiry.

1. Blended Learning: Possibilities for Transformative Learning
Cresencia Fong • http://cresenciafong.com • @cresencia
TDSB Educator (on leave) • OISE/UT PhD Student
TDSB TLT & LLRIS Summer Institute 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012

2. Blended Learning
What is “blended
learning”?
Why blend?
What might it look like?
How to blend?
Some helpful resources...
Thursday, August 23, 2012

3. What is Blended Learning?
communication
synchronous
face-to-face
online
(f2f)
mobile
(i.e. augmented reality,
probes, photo/video/audio
asynchronous
recording, GPS,
internet, etc.)
environments
Thursday, August 23, 2012

4. What is Blended Learning?
communication
synchronous
face-to-face
online
(f2f)
mobile
asynchronous
(i.e. augmented reality,
probes, photo/video/audio
recording, GPS,
internet, etc.)
environments
Thursday, August 23, 2012

5. What is Blended Learning?
A look at blended learning through the differentiated
instruction lens...
collective peer-created
knowledge base across
f2f, online, mobile,
immersive, flexible Environment multiple cohorts and
sections (e.g., wiki, blog)
grouping, shared
responsibility for
learning Content
online discussion,
blog journalling/
Process commenting, wiki
publishing, construction, tagging,
blogging, annotating,
videocasting, moderating,
podcasting, Product collaborating,
animating, wiki-ing, exploring simulations &
programming, re- virtual manipulatives,
mixing, etc. web searching, etc.
Thursday, August 23, 2012

6. Why Blend?
convenient student access to learning materials, even if absent
classroom walls softened, flexible school day
continuous student reflection of their own learning (which
aligns with constructivist approaches to learning)
democratizes student access to peer's ideas
increases likelihood of symmetric progress within the
knowledge community
embeds peer assessment
Thursday, August 23, 2012

7. Why Blend?
MORE & More Complex Interactions
student-content, student-student, student-teacher, student-technology
S S
S S
S T S
S T
S
f2f offline discussion about online discussion
f2f offline “I-R-E” discussion
(or just an online discussion)
limited time
continuous discourse flow
teacher-directed
student-directed
teacher-centred
idea-centred
Thursday, August 23, 2012

8. What Might Blended Learning Look Like?
Information/Literature Circles (Gr. 7/8, 2007-08)
Ann da Mota’s TEL Info/Lit
circles
Can begin with a very
structured model:
1 sub-conference per info circle
Each student has a specific role
Gradually move away from
roles, and emphasize the
discussion
*(Ann da Mota was Teacher-Librarian @ Gordon A. Brown MS at the time)
Thursday, August 23, 2012

9. What Might Blended Learning Look Like?
Human Diseases Wiki (Gr. 11 Biology, 2007)
(Peters & Slotta, 2010)
Thursday, August 23, 2012

10. What Might Blended Learning Look Like?
Human Diseases Wiki (Gr. 11 Biology, 2007)
(Peters & Slotta, 2010)
Thursday, August 23, 2012

11. What Might Blended Learning Look Like?
Human Diseases Wiki (Gr. 11 Biology, 2007)
(Peters & Slotta, 2010)
Thursday, August 23, 2012

12. What Might Blended Learning Look Like?
WallCology (Gr. 6 Biodiversity, 2011)
(James D. Slotta’s Encore Lab @ OISE/UT & Tom Moher’s Learning Technologies Group @ UIC, funded by NSF & SSHRC)
• 2 teachers and their 2 classes of gr. 5/6 students
• 7 weeks, Fall 2011
Thursday, August 23, 2012

13. What Might Blended Learning Look Like?
WallCology (Gr. 6 Biodiversity, 2011)
(James D. Slotta’s Encore Lab @ OISE/UT & Tom Moher’s Learning Technologies Group @ UIC, funded by NSF & SSHRC)
Thursday, August 23, 2012

14. How to Blend F2F with Online
Learning Environments?
Integrate interactive materials in a project-based context
“Scaffold” students as they work collaboratively
Use technology tools for inquiry
Provide procedural guidance
Incorporate online discussions, reflection notes, journals,
IWBs, visualizations
Provide cognitive guidance to promote reflection and critique
Embed assessments of conceptual understanding
Adopt new inquiry practices
(Slotta, 2008)
Thursday, August 23, 2012

15. How to Blend?
Designing Inquiry with Technology
Make ideas visible
(e.g., simulations, real-time data)
Help students learn from each other
(e.g., online discussions, classroom debates)
Provide accessible models and topics
(e.g., use scaffolding)
Promote autonomous lifelong learning
(e.g., design, debate, or critique activities)
(Slotta, 2008)
Thursday, August 23, 2012

16. How to Blend?
Knowledge Community & Inquiry (KCI) Model
Put forth by James D. Slotta as an accessible way to integrate knowledge communities and scaffolded inquiry
(see Slotta & Najafi, 2012)
Basic principles:
1. Students work together as a community to produce a knowledge base
2. A sequence of collaborative inquiry activities draw upon the knowledge base as a resource
3. The inquiry activities must address the community’s emergent big ideas and result in
assessable outcomes that target learning expectations
Thursday, August 23, 2012

17. How to Blend?
Consider Co-operative Learning...
http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm#activities
partners
learning management system
circle the sage (AW, D2L, moodle)
think-pair-share asynchronous discussion forum
team pair solo synchronous discussion
wiki (Voicethread, Lino, Today’s Meet)
3-step interview
document collaboration blog
round-robin brainstorming (Google Docs, PrimaryPad, Prezi)
numbered heads together social bookmarking/annotation
3-minute interview (Diigo)
multi-modal notetaking
jigsaw (Evernote)
Thursday, August 23, 2012

18. How to Blend?
F2F + Online Discourse
1.Oral “warm-up” discussion task
(e.g., news article).
2.Continue discussion task in online
forum (e.g., different news article).
3.Teacher orchestration cycle:
redirect, reflect, refocus, release
scaffold technology tool usage,
gradual release of responsibility
© Cresencia Fong, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012

19. How to Blend?
4Rs Cycle for Blended Discourse
Oral
discussion
Redirect
Online
discussion
Make connections,
Release rise above Reflect
(synthesis)
Refocus
© Cresencia Fong, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012

20. How to Blend?
4Rs Cycle for Blended Discourse
Oral
discussion Redirect
student attention from online discourse
Redirect
work (i.e. laptops/tablets) to f2f
Online discussion about online postings
discussion
Make connections,
Release rise above Reflect
(synthesis)
Refocus
© Cresencia Fong, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012

21. How to Blend?
4Rs Cycle for Blended Discourse
Oral
discussion
Redirect Reflect
on posting(s) with students to:
Online • clarify understanding of postings
discussion with authors
• highlight common big ideas or
unique perspectives
Make connections, • make connections between
Release rise above Reflect
multiple postings
(synthesis) • relate postings to: prior
knowledge, real-world
examples, or primary data
• "bend" students’ language
toward normative language for
that subject area
Refocus • position students in inquiry roles
© Cresencia Fong, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012

22. How to Blend?
4Rs Cycle for Blended Discourse
Oral
discussion
Redirect
Online
discussion
Make connections,
Release rise above Reflect
(synthesis)
Refocus
students to address a big idea,
unique perspective, or a data
Refocus
discrepancy/deficit
© Cresencia Fong, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012

23. How to Blend?
4Rs Cycle for Blended Discourse
Oral
discussion
Redirect
Online
discussion
Release Make connections,
Release rise above
students back to online discourse Reflect
work (i.e. laptops/tablets) (synthesis)
Refocus
© Cresencia Fong, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012

24. How to Blend?
Some helpful resources...
www.tdsb.on.ca/ictstandards
Thursday, August 23, 2012

25. How to Blend?
Some helpful resources...
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom's+Digital+Taxonomy
(Andrew
Churches,
2009)
Thursday, August 23, 2012

26. How to Blend?
Some helpful resources...
http://www.iste.org/
standards/nets-for-
students.aspx
• ISTE NETS for students
2007
• ISTE NETS for students
2007: Profiles
• NETS Implementation
Wiki
Thursday, August 23, 2012

27. References
Moher, T. (2006). Embedded Phenomena: Supporting Science Learning with Classroom-sized Distributed Simulations.
Proceedings ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘06) (Vol. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, pp.
691–700).
Peters, V. L., & Slotta, J. D. (2010). Scaffolding knowledge communities in the classroom: New opportunities in the Web
2.0 era. Designs for Learning Environments of the Future, 205–232.
Scardamalia, M. (2002). Collective Cognitive Responsibility for the Advancement of Knowledge. Liberal Education In A
Knowledge Society (pp. 67–98). Chicago, IL: Open Court. Retrieved from http://online.oise.utoronto.ca/webkf/
Introduction%20to%20Knowledge%20Building%20(Fall%2006)/SharedFolder/CollectiveCog.pdf
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2006). Knowledge building: Theory, pedagogy, and technology. The Cambridge handbook
of the learning sciences (pp. 97–118). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Slotta, J. D. (2010). Evolving the classrooms of the future: The interplay of pedagogy, technology and community. In K.
Makital-Siegl, F. Kaplan, Z. J., & F. F. (Eds.), Classroom of the Future: Orchestrating collaborative spaces (pp. 215–242).
Rotterdam: Sense.
Slotta, J.D. & Najafi, H. (2012). Supporting Collaborative Knowledge Construction with Web 2.0 Technologies. In
Emerging Technologies for the Classroom: A Learning Sciences Perspective (N. Lavigne, Ed.).
Slotta, J. D., & Najafi, H. (2010). Knowledge Communities in the Classroom. In P. Peterson, E. Baker, & B. McGaw (Eds.),
International Encyclopedia of Education (pp. 189–196).
Thursday, August 23, 2012

28. Thank-you!
Cresencia Fong
http://cresenciafong.com
@cresencia
Thursday, August 23, 2012