Webinar

Education Week: Webinar - Blended Learning in the Math Classroom

Strengths: Twitter, Ondemand Archive within 24 hours, Ask a question which will be answered in the Q & A at the end and Chat feature.

Weaknesses: none

Education Week is a resource that I currently follow on Twitter. They have ongoing links to educational research and articles that relate to my teaching. Given we use Dreambox in our district and they were the sponsor of this webinar, so material described was pertinent to my classroom. I would certainly participate in a future webinar of this nature! The entirety of the presentation was research based, that incorporated supporting visuals throughout the conversation. Some of the backchannel conversations that occurred in the chat feature allowed other educators to piggyback on the presentation with examples of how they are using these strategies in their classrooms. These real-life examples are profound ways for me to visualize and anticipate how I can integrate blended learning into my classroom.

A webcast would be a great way for students to take ownership of their learning. The access and equity allows students to present their learning to authentic audiences on a larger scale outside of the four walls of the classroom. Teachers can bring in experts in a specific field who can provide enriched learning experiences. Personalization of material and research in a PBL setting would allow more opportunities for this tool to be utilized.

A webcast could be used in the classroom to inform students in a blended learning setting whether it be a station-rotation model, lab-rotation model, flipped-classroom model, or individual rotation model. Each of these opportunities would allow students to view and respond to material that is age appropriate and standards aligned, while other students can receive individualized instruction at their ability level. Given the videos can be viewed later in an on-demand model, students can view content at their own pace and materials can be based on the need of each student. It would also be exciting for students to create webinars as an alternative presentation model in addition to the Keynotes and iMovies we create on a regular basis.

Strange coincidence, but the fact this webinar was on blended learning it provided numerous ideas for using webinars in elementary education as we continue to push more technology into the classroom to support individualized instruction. Based off a short Google search, I was able to find a number of related webinars I would like to attend in the upcoming weeks. It is exciting to know that we as educators can continue to learn in such rich learning environments in a flexible manner for free. It is a powerful time in education for those who are interested in pushing the limitations of limited funding, time and instructional staffing to become more effective in their teaching and increase productivity.