2016 Digital Learning Conference
Richmond, B.C.
February 19, 2016
Kai Taylor – DL is dead, it is losing its ‘different’ status and just being referenced as learning
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DL is the glue to allow awesome programs to take off
A lot of academies are going because of DL
@BCDLAA - #dlconference
Keynote: Alec Couros – Reimagining Education: The Power and Promise of Technology in
Learning
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Need to think about our identity as our digital footprint tells a lot about us
Has run a number of successful MOOCs
#ETMOOC is worth checking out – Educational Technology and Media
Technology helps us document learning
A lot of the motivation, etc. is thinking about the world that our kids are going into
There is so much content we need to think about how we are going to work with it
Teaching is far more about relationships than content
Creative commons needs to be tapped into – way underused
Open Textbook Project, in BC, is a great project
Coursera is another great source of free learning – MOOCs
YouTube is the world’s largest MOOC
A New Culture of Learning book - @dougblast and @jseelybrown
#infolit
There are also a lot of people taking advantage of naivety for entertainment and profit
Marshal McLuhan – living in an age of unmanageable amount
The Paradox of Choice – Barray Schwartz – TedTalk – ‘Decision paralysis’
Technology is meeting the need to limit what we see as we cannot process it all
Rift in society as filters are skewing what we are seeing – the ‘filter bubble’
Herbert Simon – “…the wealth of information means a dearth of something else...”
o i.e. attention spans are declining rapidly
to be fully present at any given time is difficult and the internet makes this even harder
– “Heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference…..” – showed a great
video
there is a reason for link-bait
Smarter Every Day is a great YouTube Channel – showed the Backward Brain Bicycle –
there is a strong difference between knowledge and action – (GF) this could be a good
metaphor/connector to Will Richardson comment in blog post – i.e. that we know what
is right in education but we cannot or will not do it
Storytelling is very valuable – we like stories
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There has been a significant change in the tools that are available to us – ubiquitous
“We shape the tools and then the tools shape us” – Marshal McLuhan
We need to be conscious of how we experience the world
“To capture the moment we too often miss the beauty of the moment”
Digital Dualism – it is all an augmented reality - @nathanjurgenson
We cannot log-out of these spaces – what is reality? (GF)
David White from the University of Oxford – digital residents and digital visitors
o Interesting graphic organizer of 4 grids
There has been a shift from institutional to social – continues to grow exponentially
Talked about Wolfram Alpha as a great learning tool – way better than our textbooks –
real data in real time (10 minute delay with some data)
“If you can Google it, why teach it?” – an interesting question for us
o Knowing things is still important
We don’t just enjoy now, we participate
We are creating content at phenomenal rates
Kutiman example of bringing in unconnected things and putting them together
Rather than essays, try finishing Wikipedia articles
We are living our lives on social media
Social media is also keeping our memories and creating our memories
(GF) What is reality links with what is human….hmmm
Are we living too publicly
We live in a world of information abundance – technical, cognitive, and pedagogical
challenges….great slide summarizing ideas so far – posted? Try to find it
Build your identity and network
Understanding how networks work is some of the most important learning
Learn about the tools – our kids are
Become an open learner – take on learning projects
When we learn on-line, we don’t know where it will go – very serendipitous
Embrace new forms of assessment
Technology helps us with formative assessment
Mentioned Fresh Grade
How do we leverage media for new ways of learning – not just for entertainment, but
for deeper learning – connects with creating content
We have to understand the risks of on-line identity – it can also be easily stolen
Idea of public shaming has been taking off
Photo-editing is prevalent, good, and easy to do
Our old way of doing things is to tell our own stories, now others tell our story, i.e. trip
advisor
Take control of your digital identity – especially as teachers
Forget your resume, online profiles are the tools of this generation
We have been coaxed into a false sense of security
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We need to help students understand implications of choices, where they are at, etc.
“The right to let childhood be forgotten.” – can it?
This generation needs to think very differently
The web means the end of forgetting – Jeffrey Rosen quote
Change the world – contribute positively to the digital world
Can create up-standards
A powerful tool for good as well as evil
“The internet was good that day.” – Interesting quote that gives pause for thought
“We systemically overestimate the value of access to information and underestimate
the value of access to each other.” (Shirky, 2011)
Can use technology to create these connections and to support them – used the English
learners in Brazil to seniors in the US video
Ministry Update: Skills, Trades, Curriculum and Graduation – Tim Winkelmans
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Is the director at the Ministry for these areas
DL
o Have many providers (@80) distributed learning schools
o Quality Reviews are important – by invitation mostly and looking at schools
where they might learn some things
 Send teams in to look at achievement, engagement, PD, and support that
are going on in DL schools
 Focus on student performance and related data
 Ongoing dialogue throughout the year
 Emphasis is on quality and standards
 Final report is written with the head of the DL school
 Did 4 last year and have done 2 so far this year – would like to do more of
them
 Great pro-d for those that participate
o Observations
 Shift from paper-based to engaging, digital content
 Teachers as teachers not markers
 Building communities of learners on-line
 Building bridges between neighbourhood and DL teachers
 District vision of role of DL to support all learners
 Expanding the diverse program offerings under one umbrella to address
student needs
o Quantity
 Been pretty level over the past 10 years – biggest change has been on the
private school side, especially in elementary (based on FTE count)
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Have almost 70,000 students in the system – independent schools are a
very small number, but growing mostly in K-9
 Tends to increase as kids get older…big jumps start in grade 8 and then 9
is declining though….maybe because of dual registration?
Transformation
o Guiding principles
 Personalizing learning
 Core competencies with a balance of solid foundation skills (reading,
writing, math)
 Using and applying learning from real-life situations
 Future ready skills
 Ability to compete in global economy
o Curriculum – Core Competencies
 Not graded – on a continuum, i.e. not by grade level
 Much of the pro-d will be around how to link these back to our core
subjects
o Assessment
 AGPA
 Looking at how to re-work the FSA’s to meet the needs of all parties and
keep it away from uses such as the Fraser Institute uses
 Assessment changes still on schedule – new FSA beta testing in Oct 2016
o Curriculum – K-9
 Teachers are being asked to begin working with the redesigned
curriculum
 The Applied Design, Skills and Technologies just got posted
 The Career Education Framework will be out soon
o Computational Thinking/Coding
 Curricular Competencies (ADST)
 Applied Design
 There is a design layer over everything
 Understanding the context, prototyping, testing, etc.
 Applied Skills
 Safety, skill development, etc.
 Applied Technologies
 Selection, tools in everyday life, impacts of choices, influence on
First Peoples Design
o Supports for Coding
 Code Create
 Piloted 4 coding camps in Victoria, Prince George, Vancouver, and
Kelowna
 Funded by CUEBC to create online coding resource for teachers
Focus on IT (FIT)
 Developed by the information and communications technology
council (ICTC)
 Certificates for Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe, etc. in media, software
design, networks, business analysis
 Spring or fall collaboration event with industry sponsors
 Shoulder tapper agreements
 Districts identify work experience and dual credit opportunities in
IT
 Coding action Categories
 Curriculum, infrastructure, teacher development, learning
resources, organization for learning, partnerships,
communication/outreach, other supports
 What can the Ministry to do support his work
o Graduation Years
 3,000 people around the province gave feedback in 2012 to inform the
construction of the new grad program
 Core competencies
 Visible component of learning
 Balanced with content
 Flexibility
 Learning demonstrated in non-traditional ways
 Planning
 Community connections
 Further education and careers
 Personalization
 Discover and develop passion
 relevance
 First Nations Supports
 Curriculum
 Aboriginal Perspectives of learning
 Grade 10
 Too much required, not enough options
 Provincial exams
 Planning 10
 Provincial Assessment
 Reduce the number
 Focus on numeracy and literacy
 Consider uncoupling from course marks
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Success defined by proficiency, not 50%
Proposed:
o Focus on Numeracy and Literacy
o Uncouple from course marks
o Moving away from subject-based exams
o Take-when-ready provincial assessment – proficiency
levels
o Waiting for decision on this before we can begin to create
the assessments, etc.
 Local Assessment
 Increase support
 Communicating student performance
 Consider options to letter grades
 Committees working on this
 Referenced Jan Unwin’s presentation
 Some districts are trying the portfolio piece with Fresh Grade
 Universities don’t care about subject content
 Numeracy and writing are important
 Recognizing that other forms of resiliency are important and that
GPA’s are not good measures – however, it will take them a while
to get there
 Will likely have the current credit count model for a while to allow for
changes
 Capstone project will likely be developed over the next few years
 Will see more about the Applied Design programs than the Career
Education parts
 Will look for a lot of support from BAA’s
 What do students know, understand, and do
 Timelines from BCSSA Conference in August still valid
 Students entering grade 10 in 2017 will be part of the new world
 This year’s 10’s will be transitioned to the new program
 The new curriculum will be in-place in 2017-2018
 Waiting for the decision around the assessments before they can show
what they are looking at for the Grad Program
o What is happening with the French Immersion – not anticipating any changes to
this
Alec Couros – Keynote Follow-up
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Correspondence model is still prevalent in DL
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Presence is important – have to build a presence in your courses
Starts his on-line courses with the “selfie challenge” so that all can connect (uses Padlet)
Flipgrid.com (requires a bit of money, but can share with other classes) – from the
University of Minnesota
o Can ask video or audio questions
o Very easy platform to use – create a grid/question and then
Anytime we are in an on-line setting whatever you can do to bring people together
Swivl (@$500) is a great tool for following a mic in a room – helps create presence
Uses Zoom for video and is very happy with it – there are other, free tools
UVic is working on flexible instructional models – Valerie Irvine
Offering multiple access points for ways of doing a course
FIPPA gives us a false sense of security
Looking at a variety of assessment stuff
o Kahoot! Is for when students have devices
 Quizzes
 review
o Should inform future teaching
o Should provide descriptive feedback
o Socrative is another good tool – teacher needs an account, but the students
don’t
 Can use verbal or written questions
 Can make it a race, can have teams
 More private
o Seesaw – similar to Fresh Grade
 An assessment tool that keeps a portfolio over time
 This one needs an app
 Everything submitted to the class can be seen in a social feed
 Parents can only see what their child has submitted
 Can tag things, organize things, etc.
 Rich multimedia platform
 Not housed in Canada – can still use them, with proper consent
o Freshgrade
 Out of Kelowna
 Good for building portfolios
 Surrey is very involved in this
o Plickers – kids hold up cards…a bit too public?
 Download app, print out cards, ask question and quickly see results on
computer
o There are a number that have polls that can be used
o Blogging
 Ms. Cassidy’s classroom is an excellent model
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Looking a lot of pieces of evidence over time
She uses Edublogs - @$40/year for a class of student blogs
If you want blogging to work as a portfolio, needs to occur consistently
over time
o Digital Citizenship Guide
 Just wrote one for the province
 Need to think about how digital citizenship needs to grow over time
o It seems as though the age of 9 is when they start going to things like Instagram
(social media accounts), etc. so we need to have them prepared by then
 Safety
 Handling difficult content and situations
 We do not do this nearly enough
o Reclaim Hosting – gives you a domain name so that you can control what is out
there – a great skill and presence – (GF) I need to look into this
o The NCTE 21st Century Literacies is a good list
o The internet is all about performance – how do we best perform in this space
[email protected]; http://couros.ca; http://about.me/couros
Is a big fan of Chrome – bit.ly is a great extension that he uses a lot –
http://bit.ly/dlconference has a great Google Doc of these resources
How to Encourage Blended Learning in your District – Brent Sawitzky
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Blended learning uses a lot of DL tools, etc., however, it is the relationships, contexts,
etc. that make the biggest impact
Everything is so flexible, that in DL it is all asynchronous
If you can take the classroom teacher’s context and add the DL tools then you have the
sweet-spot for learning
DL’s impact is plateauing as the skillsets are becoming more ubiquitous
BCLN site has a ‘blended learning in BC’ section with some good examples of some of
the things that are going on around the province
BCLN and Blended Learning
o The membership came together and recognized that there are a lot of teachers
in schools wanting to use BCLN materials
o Conflict between schools and DL – decided to share with DL schools and then the
DL principals can control which schools in the district can use those materials
o DL Principal decides the quality of use, capacity building, politics, policies, etc.
o Worried about the integrity of the courses – a lot of people don’t know Moodle
well enough so create a lot of problems
o DL Principal can have a lot of influence in the district, if they decide to develop it
The best blended learning is what works in said context
It is about using the tools available to meet the learner’s needs
Common Titles for Blended Learning
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o Flipped classroom
o Self-paced learning
o Technology stations
 Going through stations with different media
o Flexible learning
o Video conferencing
o Virtual classroom
o Mastery learning
 Starting to get big enough data-bases to use this
o Virtual support now
o Online enrichment
We should be introducing this stuff to our colleagues in the classroom and provide some
support to them
Common needs for blended learning
o Want a controlled and secure environment
o No SD legal problems (i.e. personal data on BC soil)
o Always yours (no licensing)
o Allow 24/7 access to learning
o Self-paced options
o Personalized learning flexibility
o Pre-built lessons and IRP alignment
 A lot that’s available, but it looks very different
 Need to lean on colleagues to develop capacity
o Project/Assessment Ideas
o Exam security and self-evaluation
o Shared feedback
o Can be modified by teacher to suit needs
Moodle and BCLN are two base places to begin going on a BL environment that is secure
How to nurture BL at home
1. Make Moodle available to everyone
a. Expand Moodle hosting (KnowPlace)
b. Involve District Support
c. One Server Preferred (support)
2. Make Moodle training available
a. Pro-D day sessions
b. Leadership by DL staff
c. Attached presentation = yours
3. Accommodate support needs
a. DL staff assistance
b. District time/support?
c. Work towards local school support
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d. Personal e-mail accounts, password resets
4. Server management
a. Can pre-load or manual accounts
b. Common DL/BL Site and Accounts
c. SMS2 to Separate Account Organization
d. Storage: backups and education – keep an eye on these as when
students constantly upload can get a considerable build-up
5. BCLN Sharing
a. Explain BCLN preview options
b. Explain Discussion Board – updates in there all the time
i. Encourage teachers to use this as a receiver and as a
contributor
c. DL principal allowing/controlling use of BCLN materials
d. Maintain quality
e. Update regularly
f. Losing students?
BCLN.ca/pro-d-present.pptx
BCLN.ca/pro-d-sandbox.mbz – a place to test and work on a course without negative
repercussions
Need to create a good directory and ‘filing’ system
o Use descriptive titles, i.e. title, school, teacher
Pro-D Presentation
o Has a description that can be used for a conference guide
o Has the session laid out for you
o Get the list of all participants, import it into Moodle and setup accounts for them
all and make them all teachers in your course (using the sand-box)
o Leave access for a finite amount of time – weeks  months
o Ask them to send you a course request 1 week after the session
o Show them how to enter things, etc. and then let them do it
o Don’t over sell it – it is hard work and has a considerable learning curve
o Explain your district’s BCLN resource request process
o Encourage them to get involved with the Discussion Board
What is Moodle?
o Modular Object-Orientated Dynamic Learning Environment
o Show them how to access your site
o Have a support person with you
o Unleash them on it to use/practice what you are showing them
MyEd BC – Update for DL Schools – Judy Smith and Ian Larsson – Ministry
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Features
o Start date, active date, % complete, and end date
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 Result – transcript records created and difficult to delete
 Working on drop/delete feature
o Course with no final mark copied to next year
 Result – duplicated transcript record
 Working on better process
o Single term transcript definition
 Course start at any time in term
 Looking at copying gradebook
Identifying the challenges and then experiment with solutions
In the first year of a complete roll-out – have to expect that there will be challenges and
hurdles and learning
Report cards
o Single consolidated report card
 Separating courses from each school – done
o Include % complete on report card – done
o Option to suppress withdrawn courses - requested
Possibilities
o One report card – final
o Portal for continuous communication of learning
“You don’t delete anything that you didn’t create” – unwritten rule
Can create a class page
o Can add tabs, links, etc.
o Can put in forums
o There are a lot of widgets available and the committee is working with Fujitsu to
create these
o Have a resources page
o Has changed the descriptions to be more continuums than grade levels
Students can create pages that their parents and their teacher can see
Possibilities are wide-open
Have a personal calendar that records assignments, due dates, etc.
Student voice should come first and can prioritize that (created student voice as a
course)
Judy is showing what she has set up for her class in the portal and it is a lot – standards,
competencies, student voice, etc.
Many layers and they are really downplaying the amount of behind the scenes work that
needs doing
o (GF) would need to have a clear vision, plan, and structure before setting this all
up – could be a complex web
The course and the assignments belong to you and the gradebook
Can counsellors and admin oversee all of this? Yes, depending on their security level –
school/district decisions
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Can be used as a limited SMS
Has been staying away from numbers, etc. but is struggling somewhat
There is a log to see which parents and when they have logged in
Place for student reflections, etc.
Will be able to go back and look at the portfolios as long as the student is still part of the
school
How portable is the student portfolio? If the student creates the page, then it should be
portable as long as in the district as we own the login, etc.
They also have it in the mobile interface – fresher, cleaner interface – no pictures on the
mobile interface
Definitely issues about course ending dates, i.e. 1 year does not work in DL
Can chose what goes on a report card or not
Building Open, Blended-Learning Options Inside Your District – Will Eaton
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Slides: http://ow.ly/YwALq
@weaton_
Organized around Know, Do, and Understand
Know is Blended Learning
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Need to refine our change agent skills
Understand section is the fundamental restructuring of educations systems and how we
think about and deliver education
Highly recommends Clayton M. Christensen’s book Blended
o It is a formal education program with online component
 Some learner control: time, place, path, and/or pace
o Supervised F2F component
 At least in part away from home
o Integrated learning experience
 Student learning modalities are connected/blended
 If never the DL and F2F meet, then it is not blended
 Need to respond to what the students are bringing to the table
BL is a delivery mechanism to personalize learning. BL is not about the technology.
Help students to go from point A to point B (GF) but we need to move them from their
point A to their point B
BL is like a GPS compared to a map – it empowers students with data in order to
o Differentiate instruction
o Expand student choice (resources/materials)
o Provided more opportunities to practice, demonstrate performance, and receive
feedback
Challenges
o It is a new mindset
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o It is a fundamental shift in instruction
o Four Elements of Student-Centred Learning
 Student progress based on mastery
 The adolescent experience is the starting point of redesign
 The full range of student learning experiences is harnessed
 Expand and reshape role of educator
o Operational implications
 Structures, roles, definitions, budgets, rate and pathways to graduation…
Taxonomy of BL Models
o Rotation model – student rotates through centres, labs, flipped classrooms,
individual rotation
o Flex model – online learning is the backbone; individually customized student
movement; fluid schedule (modalities); teacher onsite
o A La Carte model – cross-enrolled: B&M and DL – pick up a course or two
o Enriched Virtual model – “whole-school” experience
The data that we have access to is much richer and deeper – (GF) how do we capitalize
on this?
Examples of what’s going on in the province
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o YouLearn.ca – Foundations of Math 11/12 – offered in an a la carte way
 Have increased course completion and student success by cohorting the
groups
 Have a DL teacher and a Calculus teacher in the class
o ConnectEd – Alternate Ed in Penticton
 Holistic program
 Has individual rotation
 Take 2 DL courses with supports
 DL teachers watch the activity on-line of these students very, very closely
and when things break down they immediately go and visit them to help
them get back on-track
o BC Blended Learning – PL10 – ADC11 (Applied Digital Communications) – is a
disruptive innovation – in Kelowna
 Camera in a classroom to the DL teacher
 Synchronous class in multiple schools
 Use ADC class to prepare students to succeed in a digital world
o Inquiry Hub Secondary School
 Virtual enriched school
 It uses DL as its backbone to create the flexibility needed to run the
school
 Inquiry is a concept all students build their programs on and in grades 11
and 12 move into IDS’s with mentor teachers
 Teach inquiry in grades 8 and 9
 Is a mandatory F2F school, but it is set up very differently
 Fluid timetable
 I wonder what their grads are doing
How does online data inform instruction and used to improve student
achievement/engagement – (GF) should read ‘success’ I think
Cross-Curricular Themes: Freeing Pigeons from their Holes – David Truss and Al Soseth
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Pigeons is a metaphor for content, ideas, and students
A school of choice that is project and inquiry based
Use Moodle predominantly and the kids are there for f2f instruction
Key question for students is “What are you passionate about?” and then have to tease it
out
We need to be comfortable with ambiguity and chaos and be okay with giving up
control
Should be so engaged with what they are doing
Built the work around nodes – design, stewardship, and communication around identity
(self + social awareness)
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iHub Reads – is one initiative that has been quite effective – based on the CBC show
Canada Reads
o “in its first iteration….” Very much the spirit of inquiry
One of our goals has to be to combat apathy
Thematic learning aligns well with the new curriculum – used to go across curricula and
grades
Sometimes it is unpredictable about what would light their fires
i.e. “heroes and villains”
now have a curriculum that we can tie these to
with the new curricular framework we have unprecedented opportunity to meet
student needs through personalization and engagement
there is a lot of collaboration between the teachers – this is necessary – and often they
include the students in the conversations
“we are the agents of change that will transform education”
“I believe it’s not about what you want to learn. It’s about what the teacher wants to
teach you.” Ido Portol
Dream, create, learn is the moto of the school
http://bit.ly/bcssa15 - Foundations of Inquiry and Digital Literacy mind-map
Points of Inquiry – BC Librarians Web-site – it is a messy thing to try inquiry
Inquiry is not asking questions and then finding answers. Inquiry is wrestling with
dilemmas…..
It is hard to get everyone onto the same page about what needs to be taught let alone
how
There are a lot of things that get in our way in education, we need to overcome
Inquiry
o Need to give kids CHOICE and allow them to pursue their own interests
VOICE
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o Need to give kids a chance to participate in their learning and to put their
learning out there
We need to give students an authentic AUDIENCE – we still must help students to have
something powerful to say
@datruss gave a lot of examples of student success beyond the school
We can help students CONNECT to their local and global communities
Another initiative is iHubTalks where they bring in (via Skype) key thinkers and people
We can give students more LEADERSHIP opportunities – a continuum of voice
We can give students more opportunities to PLAY
NETWORKING is very important
Need to try, work, and be open to failure
Hub Blog is a great source of this information
Improvising on a Well-Defined Stage – Delivering a Project-Based, Interdisciplinary Middle
Years Program – Project Spider – Nick Smith (SD #46) – Kaia Nielsen
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Operate throughout the week – meet all of them from 10:00 – 2:30 on Thursdays – on
Fridays there is an art class and then a 2 hour humanities class and then electives in the
afternoon
About once a month go on field trips
21 enrolled and they average 12 kids – for grades 7-9 (have some 6’s that have
challenged it and are doing well)
Families asked for a transition program between homeschooling and senior secondary
Parents helped to build it along with interested teachers and supportive admin
Blended-learning; middle years, multi-age; project and inquiry-based; multi-disciplinary
Uses Moodle for the humanities content
They work as a cohort
Is both a continual entry program and a Sept start – fluid and flexible
Tap into the community expertise
Staffed at .7 fte
How open and flexible is best for middle years students (grades 7-9)?
o It depends on the child and their context
o Need to develop capacity in the students
we are at a time in our evolution when there are no ‘one-size fits all’
Learning model and philosophy – we understand that a flexible, open model that
includes a couple of days of structured schooling each week, is appropriate for this age
group. The classroom setting works well for meeting academic goals and social learning
needs.
(GF) we have a lot of excellent things happening to support student development and
success and it is easy to get overwhelmed by the number of great ideas, work,
approaches that are out there; however, there is no ‘silver bullet’. We need to have a
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lot of options and support development of passions within a system that is structured to
prevent this. How do we break that down and how do we support/resource the
individual greatness in a system built for mass production and conformity? How much
choice is too much? How much individual needs/desires can the ‘system’ handle? How
do we decide what should get finite time and resources? What gets our support and
why? How do we help teachers manage the volume? Ties back into what Alec said in
the morning about algorithms to filter the untenable volume.
what kind of learning works best at school? In the community? And online?
o Is it the learning that matters or the student needs? (GF)
o Depends on what you are trying to teach
o Learning is a social enterprise
o (GF) I think it requires a balance
Have a large alternative school program in the district
Has alternate work hours as well
It is a small district so need to take everyone in who want to participate
How much parent involvement is appropriate in a middle years program?
o (GF) again, it is individual and contextual
How much teacher-directed learning is ideal in this situation?
o (GF) as much as each student needs
Most students are enrolled in other on-line courses as well
Day One Wrap-Up – Kai Taylor
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Thank the sponsors
Day Two – Ed Camp
Changes in District DL Structures
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Kamloops (KOOL) went through significant changes last year – all teachers now have
blended assignments and have been pushed out into schools
Modelled after the North Vancouver model
Challenge is that philosophically decide that they are the high school’s staff and the
schools decide how they are allocated
Definition of blended is that their assignments are 50% DL and 50% f2f
Most DL students in Kamloops are from the immediate area
Removing the ‘any pace’ part
It is starting to spread in schools via the conversations
Changed the jobs to part-time jobs so were able to get a lot of new students
DL is becoming more entrepreneurial
A lot of people coming back from Alberta that need upgrading
Took some admin to models that were working in North Van etc. – took some of the
most stuck admin on the road-trip and it worked well
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DL is now part of the thinking philosophy in every high school – but are still fairly
resistant
Have cut back to a 10 month program because they are in schools
60 students/teacher/course on their DL part
Some issues between teachers due to recognition of work hours, etc.
Have two full-time tech people to support the program
The teachers are trained but not networked
Have 5 or so DL teachers in each school
Often the online stuff was ‘done’ but the f2f was the rich work
Those that are having the hardest time are those that are long-term DL teachers
North Vancouver Virtual School is worth looking at – they received funding through
their student support program
Could be looking at cohort structures in the schools
As our schools get smaller, blended options can provide increased options
Want every student to be an active student, need to keep records cleaner
If meeting twice in a week, can claim as a b&m student
South Central Interior Distance Ed (Merritt) has tried embedded before
SCIDES looking at cohorting
DL is the one area in education that does have choice, i.e. good teachers attract more
students, etc. (GF)
How do we make the shift K-12 with Blended Learning?
Kids have choice and parents have choice; therefore, they cannot be forced into the
classes – (GF) there is disruptive innovation through this as it should force conversations
about the way we are meeting kids needs and/or where kids are getting their
expectations from…hmmmm
Is being seen as a way to accelerate kids
Can get funding for junior kids if they are from other districts, at this point
Can run smaller classes if we augment with DL load – (GF) this has some interesting
potential
Bulkley Valley is doing video conferencing for Calculus (Smithers) – Leslie McCurrach
Innovation tends to happen when there is need…so does entrepreneurialism
Need to start advocating about how the government sees DL in the new grad program
Need fixed entry for cohorting
Need to educate around what blended is and how it can/should work – need lots of
good communication
Need to make sure your board and senior management are behind the change and then
your site based admin have to support it as well
Some unique offerings – i.e. Digital Immersion (Coquitlam)
Need to create some hooks to get kids and schools invested
Having teachers leaders in the schools is important
Kids are the drivers of the change in a lot of ways
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With a DL load, there can be more than one teacher in the classroom at a time
Having continuity is important and helpful – building relationships is key
Experiences are helping to shape choice and demand
North Vancouver has a great anxiety program for kids – seems to have a great system
for supporting kids
A lot of communities with significant learning challenges and having blended, flexible
‘programs’ can help us meet their needs
Curriculum 10-12
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DL is keeping the humanities alive – helping to run low-subscribed courses
Powell River does license through Open School
o In Blackboard and moving to Moodle
SCIDES uses Open School and then significantly changes them
Creation of new content will be a challenge
The English Curriculum is very repetitive and open
This year’s grade 9’s won’t have exposure to 20th Century Canadian History
By having an English 10-12 what are the implications for when kids move school to
school
The redesigned curriculum creates awesome opportunities for DL and Blended to
leverage technology to capitalize on the deeper/richer learning
Some anxiety around what the English courses will look like
Having things picked up a la carte might be very powerful
(GF) the structure of DL and the competitive nature is getting in the way of meaningful
course/program development – there is significant anxiety about having to recreate
their courses and no talk at all about sharing resources/content/structure/etc.
Much of the conversation is still around content and structure not about individual
student need and protecting
DL has added challenges as the courses need to be completely built in advance
This will be toughest on new teachers as they don’t have the historical
background/capacity that experienced teachers have – they will need extra support
e-Dynamic has courses available and needs feedback about what we want