Plenty of buzz exists about blended learning and its transformational potential. But what does blended learning really mean? In this course we will explore the different models of blended learning and dive into key issues that impact students, teachers, and schools. Specifically, we will look at these issues through the lens of three high-performing schools that each use a different type of blended learning. A few of the key topics will include: - The role of the student and how to support students in the transition from traditional to blended learning - Implications for teachers in their day-to-day work and overall role - Impact on the way schools are designed including staffing models, use of time, hardware/software selection, and the use of data - Implementation challenges, potential solutions, and the remaining open questions We will live by the attributes of blended learning in this course, encouraging students to take quizzes at the beginning of the module to assess their understanding and skip material they already know. Overall, we will take a hand-on approach and the course will culminate in participants prototyping their own blended learning model. If you are interested in learning more about how to best leverage technology in education and rethink the way we run schools, join this MOOC and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Become a part of this growing movement and learn first-hand how blended learning can help provide students a more personalized learning experience.
Infrastructure and Hardware
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Blended Learning: Personalizing Education for Students
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Making Hardware, Software, and Space Decisions
Explore the choices you have to make around your software, hardware, and facilities, and how to make sure they support your educational model.
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Brian GreenbergCEO
Silicon Schools Fund
Rob Schwartz
Michael Horn
>> On the infrastructure and hardware front, we're actually not going to go too
deep, because the reality is that a lot of these decisions are common sense.
And the reality on the field is actually changing every six to 12 months.
So we just want to give you a few tips as you think about these decisions.
>> Yeah, and the first tip is that the design of
your program is going to influence the kind of hardware you need.
If you're going for an ambitious flex program, where kids spend a large
portion of each day at their own time and choice, when they're online,
you're going to probably need one to one.
And if you go to a station rotation model, in which
there's three stations, probably need one computer for each three students.
But the model dictates your tech needs.
>> Now, either way on that though, you're going to need a lot of bandwidth.
And our friends at the education superhighway recommend that
you have 100 megabits per second, for every 1,000 students.
And that seems like a pretty good recommendation, that if
you don't have, you're going to choke your blended learning model.
>> Right, and if you take
a look at the education superhighway website,
they have a nice testing feature, so you
can actually see how much you have in your setting that you're in, doing education.
but the network is usually the place where we see most of the problems.
Either not enough bandwidth coming in, or even just bad internal configuration.
So we're going to pop up a couple resources that can help
you just start thinking about designing
good network settings for educational venues.
>> Now, of course you have to think
about your charging, your outlets, and security, as you dive into this.
And we're seeing a lot of schools move away from this
fixed model of desktop computers chained to an outlet with an
Ethernet cord, and much more toward using laptops and tablets with
charging stations that allow you to get power for an entire day.
And we would note that having power for an entire day on a
device is really a critical requirement to do these sorts of fun -learning models.
>> And
schools think about charging in a couple different ways.
If they keep the devices at school, they usually have
a system where every student plugs in before they go.
And the teacher ensures the devices are fully charged when kids arrive.
If you send the students home with the devices, you have to build in a
routine that requires them to do the
charging, and bring back the devices fully charged.
Just trusting students to do this on their
own, probably not going to work out for you.
And you might even need a backup, so set up
a station in the room where there's a couple charging
outlets set up, and students can work there, in case those
two kids forget, and don't bring a charged device to school.
>> On the device front, your choice is really between desktop, laptop, or tablet.
Now, Brian and I aren't here to endorse a particular product, and we don't
have any allegiances or compensation per se from any of the folks out there.
But what we're seeing is that schools are
generally moving toward adopting Google Chromebooks right now.
There have
been a bunch of market surveys as well as in our blended
learning universe, we're seeing this has become a clear trend right now.
We think that the reason for this is that Chrome books are
significantly less expensive than a lot of the other options out there.
They're often just $250 a pop, and also they're
far easier to manage in a blended learning environment.
They charge for a full day so you don't have to constantly figure out
where you're going to re-charge the, a,
computer, and because they operate in a cloud,
they're really interchangeable.
You can do your work, store it in the cloud, and
then jump on another Chromebook and leave just where you left off.
And so they're really user-friendly in
these blended learning environments right now.
>> Now the one downside to Chromebooks is that you generally
need a wireless connection for them to have their full functionality.
So if you're in a school that has good wireless, that can be a great option.
But do make sure that the software you want to use is Chromebook-compatible.
And this is only an issue
if it's not web-based.
If it can be brought on a browser, you should be fine on the Chromebooks.
>> Now, we also hear a lot of
schools moving toward iPads, and iPads certainly have
a cool factor and there's also a lot to like about a tablet form for computing.
Reading is a lot easier on these devices, and for
younger students a, it's a lot more intuitive, to use
your finger and just swipe along on a device, rather
than trying to figure out a track pad on a laptop.
In addition, a lot of the,
apps that are emerging are only available for mobile devices, which
means that you'll need a tablet if you want to use those.
>> People are very excited about tablets, and I like tablets too, and
I've' em, I've seen, I've seen tablets used best with the youngest kids.
Kinders, first, second grade.
in my schools and where I've seen also a lot
is usually around third grade and up and even second
grade and up. Teachers want a physically keyboard.
it's easier for the kids to, to start typing
out whole sentences, paragraphs and essays and papers and reports.
>> So do think about the think about
the cost and whether tablets actually cost more
than having a computer, but then also do
think about this keyboard question, because if students
are producing a significant amount of content, generally
schools are telling us that, that keyboard is
still a necessity because it can actually get
really hard to think about typing a paper
on your touchscreen.
And if you get one of those flip keyboard cases to go with their tablet?
At some point you're creating a more expensive version of
what a Chromebook already has at the $250 price point.
>> One other thing to think about, is how
you're going to manage the devices across your school.
And Google's actually done a really good job here with
the Chromebooks by providing a central device management system that
allows you as an administrator or your Tech lead to
push out updates to all devices, or sync settings, or
bookmarks, and so forth, which makes it really easy and seamless to update.
>> Schools are often tempted to buy these really
low-cost netbook or cheap PCs because the initial purchase
price looks so attractive, but you forget how much
time and energy it takes to maintain these machines.
Every time there's a new software update or you install software, your
tech team has to go computer by computer by computer to update these.
Which is a maddening
process if you're talking about 30, 100, 400 students in a school setting.
>> So it's really important to think about
all of these costs in repair and servicing.
As you're considering which devices to buy.
Really, just think about it as a total cost of ownership.
And there we also think that the nod goes
to Google Chromebooks, because they're just frankly a lot
less expensive, when you look at the total cost
you'll put in over the life of a device.
>> Now there are certain tasks
that still require more of a hard, heavy duty computer.
If you're running autocad or you're doing real video editing, you might
need a dedicated room or set of computers that can run Photoshop
and have, you know, full computing power, but if you don't, that's
where we think there's some better options than the old fashioned large desktops.
>> Now, it's not just also about
picking the hardware itself and just installing it.
The implementation process really matters quite a bit, Brian.
>> Yeah,
we, have a school that we fund, Alpha public
schools that does some really neat work with blended learning.
And one of their staff people who's in charge of
innovation there, named Charity Eyre, just wrote up a very
nice piece on EdSurge about the little things of, how
do you set up passwords, and how do you manage accounts.
It's in the weeds, but if you really want to understand what this looks like,
we'll put a link to it in the resources section, and it's definitely worth a read.
