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Who would know more about using blended learning in the classroom than the educators who are doing this work?

A new book by Liz Arney, director of innovative learning at Aspire Public Schools, offers guidance and practical tips on how to use computers to enhance lessons. The book, Go Blended!, A Handbook for Blending Technology in Schools, is based on hands-on work by Arney and others who use blended learning in their schools. Nearly a third of schools in the Aspire charter school system — which spans 38 schools in California and Tennessee — use blended learning today. It started small. The first pilot was in 2011, in an Aspire school in Oakland, Calif.

I talked to Arney on the phone Friday. Here are a few edited snippets from our conversation.

What did you learn from your work?

When we first piloted blended learning it was really just to pilot it. I think that was a mistake – it was blended learning for blended learning’s sake. We quickly realized that we really needed to do was hire technology to serve a teaching problem.

If you had a crystal ball what would you say is next?

I see a lot more than I saw three years ago, that’s becoming normalized, and I am excited about that. So much of it is just getting technology use stabilized in a school. All the sudden then the magic can happen. In terms of what it’s going to look like, I feel like anything, two years from now. I feel like it’s going to so exceed my imagination. If you had asked me three years ago if one-third of Aspire schools were using blended, I would have said: “What are you talking about? We haven’t even figured things out yet.” I don’t think we’ve figured out everything. I think we all need to get focused on instruction. If people are talking about the tech too much that’s not good – not that I don’t want them to understand the tech. I just don’t want them to get seduced by it. I feel like the bright and shiny always worries me.

Want to know what worries Arney about blended learning? Continue reading at our Blended Learning newsletter. Or just subscribe right now.

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What mistakes did they make? Lessons from blended learning’s early adopters

by Nichole Dobo, The Hechinger Report
February 10, 2015

<h1>What mistakes did they make? Lessons from blended learning’s early adopters</h1> <p class="byline">by Nichole Dobo, The Hechinger Report <br />February 10, 2015</p> <p>Who would know more about using blended learning in the classroom than the educators who are doing this work?</p> <p>A new book by&nbsp;Liz Arney, director of innovative learning at Aspire Public Schools,&nbsp;offers guidance and practical tips on how to use computers to enhance lessons. The book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Go-Blended-Handbook-Blending-Technology/dp/1118974204"><em>Go Blended!, A Handbook for Blending Technology in Schools</em></a>, is based on hands-on work by Arney and others who use blended learning in their schools. Nearly a third of schools in the Aspire charter school system — which spans 38 schools in California and Tennessee — use blended learning today. It started small. The first pilot was in 2011, in an <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/in-search-of-high-quality-teachers-charter-network-trains-its-own/">Aspire school</a> in Oakland, Calif.</p> <p>I talked to Arney on the phone Friday. Here are a few edited snippets from our conversation.</p> <p><strong>What did you learn from your work?</strong></p> <p>When we first piloted blended learning it was really just to pilot it. I think that was a mistake – it was blended learning for blended learning’s sake. We quickly realized that we really needed to do was hire technology to serve a teaching problem.</p> <p><strong>If you had a crystal ball what would you say is next?</strong></p> <p>I see a lot more than I saw three years ago, that’s becoming normalized, and I am excited about that. So much of it is just getting technology use stabilized in a school. All the sudden then the magic can happen. In terms of what it’s going to look like, I feel like anything, two years from now. I feel like it’s going to so exceed my imagination. If you had asked me three years ago if one-third of Aspire schools were using blended, I would have said: “What are you talking about? We haven’t even figured things out yet.” I don’t think we’ve figured out everything. I think we all need to get focused on instruction. If people are talking about the tech too much that’s not good – not that I don’t want them to understand the tech. I just don’t want them to get seduced by it. I feel like the bright and shiny always worries me.</p> <p><strong>Want to know what worries Arney about blended learning? Continue reading at <a href="http://eepurl.com/bdWqZb">our Blended Learning newsletter</a>. Or just subscribe right now.</strong> </p> <p> #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width:600px;}<br /> /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.<br /> We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */</p> <div id="mc_embed_signup"> <div id="mc_embed_signup_scroll"> <h2>Subscribe to our mailing list</h2> <div class="mc-field-group"><label for="mce-EMAIL">Email Address </label> </div> <div id="mce-responses" class="clear"> <div id="mce-error-response" class="response" style="display: none"></div> <div id="mce-success-response" class="response" style="display: none"></div> </div> <div style="position: absolute;left: -5000px"></div> <div class="clear"></div> </div> </div> <p> </p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://hechingerreport.org/what-mistakes-did-they-make-learning-from-blended-learnings-early-adopters/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://hechingerreport.org&quot;&gt;The Hechinger Report&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/cropped-favicon.jpg?fit=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://hechingerreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=19443&amp;amp;ga4=G-03KPHXDF3H&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://hechingerreport.org/what-mistakes-did-they-make-learning-from-blended-learnings-early-adopters/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hechingerreport.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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