In a flipped classroom, the conventional approach of lecturing and teaching new material in class, and then assigning homework to reinforce concepts, gets flipped. For example, a teacher might record a video lecture for students to review at home at their own pace. The next day in class, students engage in activities with the teacher and one another to better synthesize and contextualize the new information. With flipped classrooms students have a greater responsibility for their own success, since they will be completely unfamiliar with the material unless they do their homework. Students also benefit from greater comprehension, since the work they do in class requires high levels of participation.   Blogs One popular way to flip a class is through blogs. Teachers in the Humanities, English, and Literature can assign blog-writing exercises to help students become better critical thinkers and writers. Blogging in class creates a distraction-free zone, enabling students to concentrate on delivering creative work before the bell rings. English teacher Brian Sztabnik flipped his classroom, and even gave students the choice of which novel or nonfiction book to read. "My flip, which I first explored two years ago, did all of these things, and created a contagious atmosphere of passionate readers," writes Sztabnik on Edutopia. "Its two cornerstones are choice and blogs. This approach has completely changed the way I teach reading, with my students repeatedly saying that it was the best and most important unit of the year."   Courses Another emerging trend in the classroom, known as student-led learning, has students creating lessons or even whole courses during class. Similar to Sztabnik’s approach to flipping his classroom with blogs, students collaborate during class and research, curate and repackage content from sites like Wikipedia, Quizlet, Google Maps, Sketchfab and more. Teachers might assign a theme or topic like "Appalachian Geology" or "Comparative Cuisine and Culture." Then students split into teams and create content for each lesson, including quizzes to assess their fellow students’ mastery of the material. David Wilson, Associate Professor of Sciences at Parkland Community College, regularly flips his classroom with courses. "I think it’s a really good pedagogical practice to have the students involved in the mental task of generating content for a course." At the end of a unit, Wilson will include test questions from his students, alongside questions on the core concepts. "There are other concepts covered that students may find particularly engaging that I may have overlooked including in course assessments," says Wilson. "If students generate quiz questions on concepts that excite them, I can then revise.    

I received some interesting questions (and you know I love questions) from someone doing eLearning industry market research around trends in simulations, games, social learning.  They said they would be fine with me posting my thoughts.  I’m sure they’d love to get thoughts from others as there’s likely not enough data around this stuff to be super comfortable making business decisions. Question 1 - As the notion of "learning as an event" begins to be replaced with true "just-in-time" learning, (in the form of learning communities and availability to portals of knowledge and information) do you think off-the-shelf eLearning programs in professional skill development will continue to be one component of a learning solution? Will they grow in need, become obsolete, or remain the same? This is a case where I look back at what I’ve written: Course and Courseware Fading - The Future of eLearning Shift in Blended Learning - Example of Melding of Training and Support and now I find that I probably should back step a little.  I generally talk about what’s on the leading edge, but here, the questions are a bit different.  Yes, we will continue to see lots of professional skill development via off-the-shelf eLearning solutions.  I do think these will need to morph to fit better with new kinds of consumption and as part of an overall blended solution.  But people continue to need core development opportunities and eLearning courseware continues to be an important part of the mix. That said - if I’m defining my business direction (which is what’s behind these questions), I would start by looking at my post on the Business of Learning.  There’s a lot to question about content based business models in a time when there’s easy access to lots of content.  There’s always a place for truly differentiated and valuable learning experiences.  But most content is me-too - and the value proposition for that will go down. This is further complicated by the fact that there’s expectation that learning is going to be more and more part of day-to-day knowledge work.  In my recent post, I claim Social Learning Tools Should Not be Separate from Enterprise 2.0.  You need to think about how your learning business lines up with the reality of work and tools in the near future.  Of course, one of the big problems is that the marketplace (especially learning / training leaders) are not yet ready to replace courseware expenditure with other kinds of spending quite yet. Question 2)  As new technologies for learning grow, and the use of games, simulations and immersive learning matures, how do you think self-directed asynchronous eLearning, will compare next to these more interactive programs? Will there remain a need for eLearning libraries? Yes, there’s still a place for eLearning libraries.  I really don’t see them going away soon.  I see the pressures I’ve described above. In terms of games, simulations, immersive learning - I continue to believe that there are wonderful opportunities to create really compelling learning experiences using these approaches.  But, we’ve yet to see a true blockbuster.  Shouldn’t there be a Management 101 Game program that’s sold 10M copies in the US?  If there was, then it would be tough to the a less compelling offering in the same space.  But clearly there are lots of other barriers that keep games and simulations in check.  The numbers I’ve seen over the past couple of years don’t suggest that these kinds of solutions are really gaining broad acceptance in the market. I should caveat that I believe that given how easy video is to shoot - simple kinds of video-based simulations will happen more often.  Actually, as price/effort continues to drop for each of these kinds of solutions, we will see more of them.  But we aren’t talking about massive numbers or replacement at this point. See also When Do Learning Games Make Business Sense? Question 3) Who is really using what in learning? What is the use level of simulations, gaming, and avatars? I’m hoping someone can help.  The last numbers I had are a little old now.  In 2008, I published some numbers from the eLearningGuild in Training Method Trends which shows a snapshot at that time.  The recent ASTD numbers provide some additional insight. Anyone know where there are some numbers around this? Anyone with different thoughts on the trends around simulations, games and social learning? eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Though we’re a few months in 2015 already, the pace of tech adoption in classrooms across the country shows no sign of slowing. Teachers continue to incorporate a bevvy of technology-driven strategies into their classrooms to make learning both more engaging and effective. With summer  on the horizon, we decided to take a look ahead and pick are our top #edtech trends for the second half of 2015.   Blended learning Broadly defined, blended learning refers to the combination of traditional classroom teaching with digital media and online instruction platforms. Online instruction gives students the ability to digest a greater amount of required information during the day, at their own pace, and makes it easier for teachers, parents and administrators to monitor student progress. The trend has been gaining momentum in districts nationwide for the past few years.   Project-based learning With project-based learning, teachers don’t just teach a topic and then ask students to complete their homework in project form. Project-based learning begins earlier, with students investigating and discovering topics on their own. This subtle but critical distinction drives major gains in student-concept mastery. When students investigate  for themselves, they understand those concepts better over the long-term. Ultimately project-based learning helps students engage their skills in researching, writing, critical thinking and collaborating.   Assistive technology Assistive technology aims to circumvent a student’s learning challenges in order to develop skills and further excel in their areas of strength. It helps students with learning deficits or disabilities. If, for example, a student performs poorly in reading but has good listening skills, that student could be given audiobooks so they further develop their listening ability while successfully learning new material. This can also benefit students with physical disabilities, like screen readers for visually impaired students and motion sensitive technology that allows kids with restricted limb mobility to complete tasks by speaking or moving their head or eyes. Assistive technology reinforces a student’s sense of confidence by developing their strengths.   Google for Education The dramatic rise in classroom-based technology has created a need for versatile educational software. Google has stepped up and offered two free educational software programs meant to benefit students in public schools across the country. Google Apps for Education and Google Play for Education are cloud-based software suites of programs meant to help students write, send emails and collaborate in real time on multiple devices. (Be sure to check out our recently announced partnership with Google.) Google often offers flexible software for teachers for free, depending on circumstances.   Free edtech apps Education is one of the top categories in the Apple and Chrome app stores. There are thousands of educational apps available for every grade level and subject, many of them for free. Many apps, including the Versal Chrome App, enable teachers to create and customize online courses, and offer them to students on devices like Chromebooks. The best apps don’t just offer text, images and videos, but take full advantage of the interactive nature of the Web.   Tech coaching Due to the growing use of technology in the classroom, a new role is cropping up in schools — the tech coach. Tech coaches ensure both students and teachers can successfully implement and understand new education devices and programs. Tech coaches also help teachers integrate technology into their classrooms in deeper ways, which means that those uncomfortable with technology are able to offer students a technology-rich, blended learning experience.   Conclusion Student’s today are very tech savvy. Incorporating technology into the classroom is an essential step in ensuring that your students are not only engaged in lessons, but developing important tech skills that will serve them in the world beyond classroom walls. This creates the possibility for an increasingly well-rounded, personalized and efficient method of education. With so many free and easy-to-use tech tools, the second half of 2015 promises both challenging and exhilarating times for teachers and students. Did we forget your favorite classroom tech? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.  

The Big Question for May is Learning Technology 2015 - it asks what we expect workplace learning technologies to look like in 2015.  I definitely want to include Performance Support as part of the discussion.  In a post on my CTO Blog, I talked about Match Performance Support,the performance support that goes along with many matching solutions such as in eHarmony. A lot of people miss that we are being tasked to do so many different kinds of things and are doing them infrequently so we basically are not very good at it.  Examples in matching were: People to Projects People to Jobs Students to Tutors In each of these, it has the classic characteristics that point to Performance Support: Infrequent  Complex Important to get right I would claim that as knowledge work becomes more complex and we move towards being concept workers, we are being asked to act like experts even though we aren’t experts.  See Does Deliberative Practice Lead to Quick Proficiency? I think we are reaching a time when we are going to see an explosion of Performance Support.  You will get help when you: Try to find the right project, start the project, perform the project, complete the project Hire someone Sell a house Improve customer satisfaction (data driven). This is going to first take the form of hundreds of thousands of different little applications that each provide performance support for particular tasks.  We are already seeing this in terms of lots of startups aimed at particular elements of knowledge work.  But these will be getting better. I also think there’s a really interesting opportunity to create an online Performance Support builder that could make it easy to build out simple performance support tools.  Crowd source creation of the tools.  There’s a nice business there. Anyone want to fund that business? Let’s check back in five years and see how I did? Please add your predictions to the big question. Other posts (via eLearning Learning) on Performance Support: Performance Support- eLearning Technology, August 26, 2008 About Declarative and Procedural Knowledge and the Expert-Novice Divide- ID Reflections, October 17, 2009 Are Web 2.0 tools designed to support learning?- IDiot, January 27, 2009 Harvesting Learning’s Fruit: A Downstream Training Investment- Living in Learning, September 4, 2009 Conceptualizing the Performance Ecosystem- Learnlets, April 9, 2009 10 Strategies for Integrating Learning and Work (part 1), June 15, 2009 Whatever Happened to Performance Support? — Informal Learning Blog, December 29, 2008 A Better Learning to Performance Model and Job Aid, August 22, 2008 Not by performance support alone, August 2, 2009 Organizing for Performance Effectiveness, June 1, 2009 Performance Support Lab - PS Links, July 11, 2009 The Future of the Training Department, October 21, 2009 Integrating Learning and Work, June 16, 2009 It’s the performance, or, what every manager should know about Bob Mager, March 8, 2010 Performer Support and the Moment of Change, September 18, 2009 7 Informal Learning Services for the Training Function, April 2, 2009 The Science Behind Learning: Cognitive Tips and How Tos for Corporate Training, February 28, 2010 On-job support is critical, December 19, 2008 Upgrading - A PERFECT time for Performance Support, February 16, 2010 Life Support Can Be Expensive- aLearning, March 27, 2010 Work Context: The New Classroom- Living in Learning, March 22, 2010 21st Century Learning Strategies- Spark Your Interest, April 15, 2010 PDR Design Model Supports Shift to Learning Design in the Work Context- Living in Learning, August 23, 2009 When it's just so obvious NOT to train it's painful to watch it happen- Performance Learning Productivity, June 12, 2009 New skills for learning professionals- Informal Learning, July 1, 2009 Beyond the course- Learnlets, December 1, 2008 Transfer of Learning - Theories and Implications- Designed for Learning, October 31, 2009 Checklist of Social Learning Strategies- Engaged Learning, January 12, 2010 Deeper Instructional Design- In the Middle of the Curve, November 13, 2008 Scope of Learning Responsibility- The Learning Circuits Blog, March 3, 2008 Pointing to the Five Moments of Learning Need- Integrated Learnings, July 25, 2009 Content Organization Cheat Sheet- The eLearning Coach, November 30, 2009 How not to train- Good Practice, July 28, 2009 eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Blended learning is a major trend sweeping the K12 education nation. Broadly defined, blended learning refers to the combination of traditional classroom teaching with digital media and online educational platforms. According to our recent study, 53% of K12 teachers in the US used online tools in the classroom last year, up 6% from 2013. Blended learning, as a trend, encompasses a wide variety of teaching strategies and classroom setups. Many educators find it helpful to organize into the 5 models of blended learning, a framework which identifies the principal approaches and how they differ.   1. The Rotation model The Rotation model refers to physically separating a classroom into one area with traditional desks-and-chairs and another area with computers and tech. Students then take shifts rotating between these classroom areas. Pros: Easier to weave together traditional and tech-based instruction as students can hear from teachers even as work on computers. Also guarantees equal access to computers for all students in the class. Cons: Harder to implement at the high school level, as students typically move from room-to-room throughout the day, whereas students often stay in the same room during elementary school days.   2. The Flex model The Flex model relies almost entirely on online instruction and activity. Students benefit from the flexibility of online instruction, ie the extra availability and content options compared to traditional classroom instruction. Teachers are available to answer questions and provide oversight. Pros: Allows students to learn at their own pace, which research shows is especially important for learning disadvantaged students. Involves teachers closely in the student progress, even though learning happens mainly online. Cons: Limited direct contact with students during their study time. Also, students who lack online access at home won’t benefit as much from this model.   3. The "A la carte" model The A la carte model combines traditional classroom instruction with an online class chosen by the student from a list predetermined by a teacher or administrator. In this way, a teacher or school extends the range of classes that students may choose from, while maintaining a standard for quality and cohesive curriculum. This is also known as the "Self-blend" model. Pros: Empowers students, teachers and administrators to tap into a wide and growing abundance of online courses, which is especially valuable for rural schools and those with smaller faculty. Cons: Can be difficult for teachers and administrators to create online courses that fit their requirements, which often requires technical skills. Likewise, hard to find existing high-quality online courses that fit more structured curriculum requirements. Also limited to students who have computer access at home. Finally, works best for highly motivated students, as their is limited teacher oversight.   4. The Enriched virtual model The Enriched Virtual model relies heavily on online courses. All students take the same online courses and divide their time between school and home. The school is essentially a computer lab, with breakout rooms for small group collaboration. Students come into the school only once or twice a week. Pros: For populations that cannot support full-time schools or faculty, this model provides a viable alternative. Also works very well with families and communities that prefer to homeschool. Finally, this model requires students approach their education with self-reliance and independence. Cons: Relies heavily on online instruction, so students need to be highly motivated and have computers at home. As a largely remote learning model, students may find it harder to forge deep social connections and group collaboration skills.   5. The Flipped classroom model The Flipped classroom model has gotten a lot of attention recently. In a flipped classroom, students learn online at home, often via video, as opposed to doing homework. Then, in class, students engage in projects or group collaboration that reinforces and contextualizes what they studied at home. Pros: Empowers motivated students to self-direct their learning with projects and greater control over their schedules. Cons: Relies on trust and preparation. If a student doesn’t complete the online assignment, they will lose out on the in-class project. Also, requires a significant level of teacher effort to prepare the videos or online course for at-home study. Finally, students must have computer access at home.   Conclusion With these 5 blended learning models, teachers and administrators have the opportunity to make sense of the evolving edtech landscape and shape the classrooms of the future. Each blended learning model supports a different use case, and at Versal we have found a way to support all of them with one easy-to-use course building platform, no coding required. If you’ve contemplated one of the above, sign up for free and see how Versal can help get your class into blended learning.  

I was hoping that Ning was going to come out with a inexpensive plan that would support the different Ning sites that I have a hand in.  They do have Ning Mini at $3/mo, but it only allows 150 members.  That’s not going to work for: LearnTrends LA CTO Forum Work Literacy I’ve read a bit about alternatives, but each will require a bit of work.  Harold Jarche is trying to figure it out for the Work Literacy site.  I hope he comes up with a good answer and I can piggy back his efforts for the other two. Suggestions? eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

 Chess helps you to concentrate, and improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules and take responsibility for your actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment. Garry Kasparov For all of you chess lovers out there, Versal recently released a gadget that allows authors to teach interesting positions, sequences of moves, and more. It’s a fun and interactive way to engage students and teach critical thinking within the context of a Versal course. Many schools, like Success Academy Charter Schools in New York, teach chess as a dedicated class or lesson in order to boost students’ working memory, problem-solving skills, and their ability to self-monitor and reflect. We hope you also find engaging ways to integrate this tool into your instruction. Interested in seeing it in action? Visit the example Chess gadget course to see all the available moves. If you need help using the gadget, check out our Chess gadget tutorial.  

Today’s blog post comes to us from Dusty Hepler, a homeschool teacher and Versal fan. As both a homeschooling mom of a decidedly techie child and the organizer of a growing homeschool co-op (roughly 120 students from 3-15 years old), my approach to education is shifting to keep pace with this new digital generation. As my child matures, I’m looking to capture her imagination and engage her in pursuit of knowledge. The lesson content is important, as is the ability to teach her to love learning and how to seek understanding. Likewise, since I organize teachers and assemble classes for students of various interests and learning styles, I’m constantly experimenting with new learning methods and innovative tools. Over the past four years, I have explored many styles of teaching: traditional textbooks, biography and "living" book courses, unschooling, computer-based programs, and everything in between. With the vast amount of resources available, organizing and compiling lessons is a bit overwhelming. That’s when I discovered Versal. It appealed to me because of its adaptability, and how swiftly lessons could be assembled and implemented. Building the lessons myself creates a much higher degree of familiarity with the material, thereby enabling me to teach it with a stronger authority. Versal’s adaptability makes it a great platform for assembling engaging courses for larger groups and individual lessons for home use, in one location. Lapbooks are popular among homeschooling families, but they are time consuming and can be difficult to create and assemble all the components. Versal allows parents and instructors to make online "lapbooks" with widgets that produce interactive vocabulary practice, picture labeling quizzes, even 3D renderings and so much more . These interactive exercises are not only appealing to younger children, but are exciting for students in upper grade levels as well. Lessons can be augmented with videos, pictures, links and text organized into categories and subcategories so students can easily jump back-and-forth between lessons and sections I also love that I can organize multiple lessons for classes within our co-op community and our home simultaneously. I’ll compile online materials, including videos, quizzes, interactive activities and site external resources in one (or more) courses and cover both unit topics that interest my child plus for our group classes. I also love learning and have found that it is a great personal resource for organizing my thoughts and research on topics that interest me - from tips and tricks, to health information, even recipes. For older homeschooling student’s, I’ve found that Versal offers me another way to explore project-based learning. For example, I can invite them as collaborators to a course, and from there they can create mini lessons, as opposed to writing tedious essays. By giving students the opportunity to assemble and present information to a teacher or group of peers, they dig deeper and develop a broader level of connection and comprehension. Our homeschool community is an integral part of our educational system. The opportunity to share lessons with other homeschooling moms will empower us to work collectively and assemble a library of subjects with interactive lessons. Versal allows me to organize and create appealing lessons quickly. There’s no better way to create a number of engaging lessons in a crunch!

Earlier this year I questioned why there was Still No Flash on the iPhone and iPad. It’s become quite clear that Apple (Steve Jobs) is going to block putting Flash on these platforms. Today the big news is Scribd Switches to HTML5; Adobe To Make Tools for HTML5. As a Part-Time CTO, I am continually making choices about what platforms to use, what do we build for, how do we integrate with social networks, etc. And just like a few years ago when it became clear that you shouldn’t build desktop applications anymore, I think we are hitting a tipping point where you have to question building anything that uses Flash as the delivery mechanism. Scribd today announced that they are going to be changing their Flash player to be based on HTML5. "We are scrapping three years of Flash development and betting the company on HTML5 because we believe HTML5 is a dramatically better reading experience than Flash. Now any document can become a Web page," Scribd co-founder and CTO Jared Friedman told TechCrunch. This comes at the same time as Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch: We’re Going To Make The Best Tools In The World For HTML5. Kevin doesn’t say that they are moving away from Flash - rather that they will support Flash and HTML5 as output. But it’s pretty clear that even Adobe sees the problem here. What does this mean in practice? Well Captivate will produce HTML5 so that it can be run on an iPhone, iPad and everywhere else. Right now, I believe this is a tipping point moment. It’s the beginning of the long slow death of Flash. The only question is my mind is how long/slow it will be.Oh and if I'm predicting relative to the big question this month: Learning Technology 2015 then my prediction is that we won't be building for Flash delivery in 2015. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

The high school biology lab is coming around to PETA. As more students object to animal dissection coursework in high school biology labs across the country, teachers and schools have begun to provide online alternatives or eliminate animal dissection altogether. The trend is backed by animal rights organizations such as PETA. To date, 11 states have enacted legislation to protect student dissection alternatives on the grounds of moral and religious freedoms. Dissection is practiced by 84% of pre-college biology educators, according to anti-dissection nonprofit NAVS. The practice began in the 1920s but didn’t become widespread in high schools until the 1960s. Online alternatives like 3-D illustrations, videos and interactive courses could save the lives of millions of animals. There are economic and environmental benefits as well. When a teacher or school procures an online alternative to animal dissection, they can re-use that digital resource infinitely, whereas animal specimens require resupplying every year. Many online alternatives are free, as well. The savings to schools on a tight budget can be considerable. Teachers also get back the time they would otherwise spend on setting up and cleaning animal specimens in the lab. Studies have shown that students taught using non-animal methods — online alternatives to animal dissection — tested as well if not better than their peers who were taught using traditional animal-based methods. No mess, no queasiness improved the students’ focus. The discoloration from animal preservation (think blue and bright pink veins) doesn’t distract or confuse students, and the specimen isn’t discarded, so students can return and review online diagrams and resources. With virtual dissection, students can repeatedly study a body system utilizing interactive graphics and video accompanied by in-depth text. Both the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) have approved non-animal alternatives to dissection. These organizations, along with PETA, the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) and the National Association of Biology Teachers, strongly encourage teachers who do offer traditional dissection in their classrooms to be responsive to students’ objections to animal dissection and to be prepared to provide alternatives. The Humane Society provides a campaign packet to help students and educators implement alternative dissection methods. The great news is that many of these alternatives are widely available right now. Even companies that supply once-living animals now offer dissection alternatives. Also be sure to check out Versal’s course catalog, which features courses with online diagrams and interactive quizzes on animal physiology for biology labs. Online, interactive courses provide as good or better educational outcomes for students as animal dissection, with greater cost savings. For a growing population of both students and teachers, the online alternative is the more humane and enjoyable choice.