Learning to Jump into Blended Learning

Ito’s example is incredible and really shows the power of the internet to find information and to connect with people across the world. There is a lot of truth in being a “Now ist,” and as a student, I think having a clear goal and jumping in for a lot of trial and error is a great way to learn. This approach makes me a little more nervous as a teacher. For my students to have the flexibility and support to investigate, create, fail and reevaluate in a lesson, I feel that I have to be overprepared to handle the controlled chaos. This need to prepare for every possible situation can hold me back from taking risks and trying new things though. To best embrace the “Now ist” attitude as a teacher, I need to create a strong learning environment and then trust the growth mindset model of growing from failure.

Markoff made an important point about a lot of schools and educators being interested in blended learning, but they either don’t invest fully or they jump ship after one failure. And granted, if my administrators and I feel that my blended learning program is a failure after the first year, I also would be extremely tempted to go back to my old methods. But Markoff talked about a school in Fresno that offered an online course that transitioned through several different unsuccessful models before finding the one where 95% of students were successful. This school believed in the research and power behind blended learning and gave the administrators and teachers time and flexibility to evaluate and adjust their programs. I hope to take that lesson to heart and continue forward with blended learning even after setbacks and failures.