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Los Angeles spent $1 billion to put iPads in the hand of students and within a week students found a way around and use the iPads for playing video games instead.

I came across this. An interesting way to use technology to bring to light a huge issue as well as honor those who have died. 

5th Graders talk about what class was like before and after their teacher began using Khan Academy...

The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation just released their first in a series of case studies about what blended learning can "look like." The cases will break out the schools' instructional, operational, and financial models, which I find very helpful. This first case profiles a K-1 KIPP school in Los Angeles using computer-based stations to make a rotational small-group differentiated instruction model feasible with a smaller budget for instructional staff. As the authors state, "online programs enable [KIPP] Empower's model but do not integrate with teacher-led instruction" (11).

Related to section on how iPads are currently being used in a California school. making short videos to taking photos of complex formulas displayed on a blackboard for later review. Language students record themselves reciting lessons, and then upload the files to their teachers' drop boxes for critique. And math teachers use iPads to videotape students working through problems, explaining how they arrived at the solution and thereby demonstrating mastery of a lesson.

Here's the blog from the school's iLab http://hillbrookilab.com/

One teacher claims that "The idea is to invert the normal rhythms of school, so that lectures are viewed on the kids' own time and homework is done at school." - Do you agree that this is a good solution? 

I too am intrigued by this "inverting" of time spent in the classroom and at home. My idealized model would be to introduce learners to new material at their own pace out of the classroom (allowing for pausing, note taking, reflecting and/or rewinding) and focus classroom time on face to face guiding and coaching of clusters of students or individual students engaged in applying or exploring the current material. To help facilitate this (and assist with accountability) some brief form of pre-assessment before class or at the start of class could illuminate for student and teacher alike what material has been mastered and what needs more attention. The research report from the TIE Foundations summer reading appears to support this type of hybrid approach. => Marsha Lovett, Oded Meyer, and Candace Thille (2008). The Open Learning Initiative: Measuring the effectiveness of the OLI statistics course in accelerating student learning.

An added benefit of tools such as Khan Academy is the option for reinforcement. In a traditional K-12 school environment students do not have the option to watch a video of their class or spend personalized time reviewing a concept they need more time with during class time due to the required pace of school curriculum. An online learning tool allows a student to watch a lesson as many times as needed and to learn from an expert. Often if a student needs help outside the classroom the only people they turn to is parents, who may or may not know about the content themselves.

Relating to in-class discussion last week about colleges outsourcing e-mail to Google....

"Thanks to the simple addition of thumbs up and thumbs down buttons on many websites, advertisers are finally getting a sense of how enjoyable (or annoying) their ads are."

Published Online: October 25, 2011 Published in Print: October 26, 2011, as 'Blended Learning' for the Little Ones By Jill Barshay, The Hechinger Report Los Angeles 1st grader Lena Barrett clicks through a series of icons and logs on to a laptop under the fluorescent lights of her classroom.