Hybrid learning is going to be the instructional medium of the (very near) future. Students will be spending more time receiving content instruction in an online capacity and then working with a local teacher who will perform a facilitator role rather than imparting content knowledge onto students. This will open pathways for students to take courses with instructors from different districts and, eventually, countries. In this day and age when technology has become so affordable for school districts, why would we deny a student who is fluent in Spanish, from taking a course on Spanish History from a teacher in Spain? It simply makes no sense to fight these societal trends especially since kids embrace these technologies. The key to creating this type of environment will not be generating the partnerships with these entities but, rather, slowly assimilating school districts and constituencies into the new system.
There are two keys to building the kind of trust required to make the new system successful. The first is to train teachers to effectively facilitate student learning without being the center of attention on a daily basis. This means teachers must develop a new skill set that hybridizes their content knowledge as well as their ability to transfer that knowledge to other fields. The number one trait that districts will be using to judge new teachers in the years to come: flexibility. This is MUCH more difficult than it seems. The days of having teachers who specialize in one content area are rapidly coming to a close. Much of this is because the days of students being assigned projects/assignments that are exclusive to one content area are limited as well. Interdisciplinary work will rule supreme in the future simply because it is this kind of integrative thinking1 that will separate successful from unsuccessful individuals.
The second emphasis should be on generating this type of hybrid learning on a district level before extending beyond the walls of local control. No one can (or should) expect that large-scale hybrid learning can take place by simply setting students up on a distance learning portal and snapping his/her fingers. It is simply illogical to think this way: case closed. Instead, districts should begin working with isolated courses and training their staff gradually to facilitate these types of learning environments. The districts that jump on this type of professional development training first will be the districts that are the most successful and economically efficient when it comes to taking their students to the next level thereby providing their district with the highest quality education.
1 For more on integrative thinking please take the time to read: The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin.
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I’ve been trying to create an updated journalism class for 2010-2011, which will include more student centered creation of videos, blogs, pocasts, an online newspaper, and a hardcopy newspaper. I’ll post a kind of summary of what I want to do. If you would, please comment on the plan and any ideas you might have.
Larry
Mission statement
The Angora Buzz (the student run newspaer both on and off line fro Rocksprings High School in Rocksprings, TX) will complement the Texas Mohair Weekly (the weekly newspaper in town–pop. under 1200 with stories that cannot be printed in the newspaper for lack of interest or space. Another advantage of creating an online newspaper is that it can be updated at almost any time. Also pictures can be submitted to the web site in color, thus enhancing the written text. Additionally, the experience that students receive through creating the Angora Buzz online will translate into skills that can be transferred from a school setting into the marketplace. Skills that can be transferred from a school setting into the marketplace are included in the descriptions below.
Students will:
· Improve writing skills
· Hone their critical thinking skills
· Learn, apply, and adapt technology skills, including production of audio and video programs (podcasts and videocasts)
· Develop their public speaking ability by reading excerpts from books/stories/poetry we are reading in class. These excerpts will be read in Spanish and English, thus providing a service to the Spanish speaking language community
· Students involved in this project will be introduced to the language of journalism (headline, byline, gutter, nut graf, and so forth)
· Increase students’ interpersonal skills
· Students will collaborate on producing quality programming
· Employ technology skills (such as word processing, PowerPoint presentations enhanced with sound, music, and graphics, cropping pictures) to create an online newspaper rich in graphic content—pictures, video, infographics
· Collaborate with Southwest Texas Junior College
Larry,
I really like the idea of “transferable skills” and working with the local college. I think that journalism is a class that speaks directly to relevance and focusing on the need for a free press and the 1st amendment is something that kids will value if they have a stake in the process. The biggest key, I think, is allowing them to make mistakes and then get called on it by peers and others. One of the beauties of our press (though it can be a pain) is that everyone gets a say….even when they have no idea what they are talking about. Letting the kids do some “investigative journalism” would be a great aid.
I’m still mulling over some thoughts, but I’ll e-mail directly with those. I also shared your outline with some people so, hopefully, they help out as well.
AE