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Western Governors University (WGU) is a hybrid inputs/outcomes model on online education. Each student has an adviser; competency is assessed initially; students can exit classes when ready; you pay one price ($5K/half year), and may consume as many classes in that period as desired.

Blended learning got the vote of Brian Greenberg, the former leader of Oakland's Envision Schools and the Fisher Family Foundation to spend on transitioning from the current instructional model of 25 Bay Area Schools.

This is the link to a MOOC orchestrated by Stephen Downes, "Change in Formal Education Systems". Unlike the MOOCs that are getting all the press, like Coursera and EdX which are largely replicating a model that pushes content to the learner, this MOOC is actually trying to change the dynamics of teacher-learner interactions. The live session described here is about interaction. "Interaction - The various types and methods by which interaction is supported in formal education, especially student-student, student-content and student-teacher interactions. We look especially at the capacity to substitute one form of interaction for another based on funding, time subject and context."

Not surprising that the cradle of innovation in this country is backing up the truck to support the "innovative" blended learning model.

Similar to MIT's Scratch, Globaloria positions itself as helping students develop STEM knowledge, digital literacy skills, and college readiness through game design. The program markets itself as a blended learning model.

Some of the city's "turnaround" schools, including the one where this teacher works, are listing knowledge or willingness to learn about using a blended learning instructional models as a criterion for hiring teachers. An interesting and entertaining blig post about implementation & buy-in of blended learning in NYC schools.

used iLearn http://www.ilearn.com/web/AboutGains.asp

Have we posted/discussed this? A system such as this (see following post) would work well in one of the distributive models of teaching and learning we worked with last week. I am considering integrating into my charter school and would be curious to know people's experience and thoughts...

Yes, but would it work in the station rotation model (fig 6) of distributive learning and how much does it cost?

In this feature, Apple profiles HOW their products are used in a variety of educational settings. It's one of the least 'promotion-based' sites I've seen from Apple in awhile... Typically, I'm cynical when a company "profiles" its own products; however, this one is done fairly well. This site could be a helpful model when attempting to demonstrate functional use of a product, highlighting the ends, not the means...

Thanks for sharing this link! I know that there are some schools which have bought iPads and then didn't know what they were going to do with them. This community obviously had a clear idea of how to use them, what problems they were going to solve and how to assess their outcomes. Nice!

This is a link to a paper that Chris mentioned earlier today. It proposes six types of involvement with digital games: tactical, affective, narrative, shared, performative, and spatial.

Interesting site from Intel. The banner reads "Preparing Students for 21st Century Success." The intersection of corporations and education.

In contrast with the deployment issues of OLPC, here's an article on 1-1 initiative that focused on professional development, teacher collaboration, switching to a teacher selected, digital based curriculum with formative assessments, and a leased laptop support & deployment model.  (Full disclosure - the vendor is Apple).

Founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, Atari played a central role in the early history of video games, going on to create what are still some of the most recognizable arcade games on the planet, like Pac-Man and Pong, to name a few.

very interesting. With the rise and widepsread adoption of mobile devices as the gateway of choice for gaming, more and more game companies are jumping on the mobile app bandwagon. With Atari shifting its focus like this, it instantly makes me think what other founding game company have or will need to do. Sega, another big name in the early gaming days, eventually had to drop out of the hardware game because it couldn't compete. It now produces game content for its former competitor's gaming hardware. And Sega now even ports lots of its classic video games from the 80s and 90s to mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad. Nintendo is still in the hardware game, but it's portable gaming hardware is now competing with directly mobile devices (& apps) head on. Nintendo's revenue and userbase is shrinking, and most analysts and observers are pointing to the rise of iOS and other mobile devices as substitutes to dedicated gaming devices. Will Nintendo still stick around using its current model- making its own gaming hardware to sell its own (highly regarded) 1st-party properties, like Mario, Zelda etc? Lots are predicting (or even encouraging) Nintendo to drop making its own hardware, and to produce content with its prized properties onto mobile devices.

Check out how Apple partnered with textbook publishers to revolutionize the education space with this new model. Just announced today!

"What accounts for the high attrition rates? Maybe some of it has to do with aptitude, or encouragement, or good role models and mentors. But Philip Babcock, an economist at the University of California, Davis, suggests that a lot of it has to do with homework. Professor Babcock has written extensively about college students' evolving study habits (or lack thereof) over the last 50 years. He found that in 1961, full-time students spent about 40 hours each week in class and studying. By 2003, they were investing about 27 hours a week". But then, we did not have Facebook, Twitter and Videogames in 1961 :-)

"Apple said electronic high school textbooks from its initial publishing partners, including Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, would cost $15 or less. That is much cheaper than print textbooks, some of which can cost over $100". woo hoo!

I can explain the business model to you if you'd like that shows how the $15 price point is feasible in what turns out to be an almost $40 million dollar textbook investment! Just let me know!

I would be definitely interested :-)

This is a Facebook page started by parents at our local Elementary school about school.

Much of the conversation seems reasonable enough but it will be interesting to see how adults can model public conversation. I'm not comfortable with having adult conversation displayed for kids within the school environment. I think that this is the equivalent of parents fighting in front of their children. Kids don't process it in a healthy manner and adults who do it I think do so for their own convenience and at the peril of kids. I think if adult in this community can be disciplined in their comments and stick strictly to logistical information with the understanding that kids are watching (FB will never replace parent oversight), it may be a useful tool. I also think the only way teachers can influence this page is by jumping on and using it to communicate because it seems to me that is the real "ask" in establishing the page.

Day in the life of a flipped classroom

It's cool to see how teachers have been inspired. This model obviously has some strengths.