Hybrid or Online Learning which one is best for my school ?

Alert !!!!
Administration Please Read The Following

"Hybrid" or "Blended" are names commonly used to describe courses in which some traditional face-to-face "seat time" has been replaced by online learning activities. The purpose of a hybrid/blended course is to take advantage of the best features of both face-to-face and online learning.

"Online learning is a disruption that cannot be stopped," Joseph J. O'Brien, (Director of the Chester County Intermediate Unit)

Don't stop here, do you want your school to run more efficient and economically, all while costs go down, I know that is the #1 priority! 

The following video gives you a more complete overview.

Advantages of Online Learning:

"This is just a snapshot"

• Can tailor the learning experience for each student.
• Increase student interest: when we include technology into the lesson it increases student interest
• Today's generation is frequently called Generation Y because they "have technology in there blood"they do not know what it is like to not have computers, ipads, cell phones, etc. With that said students Interest is Increased when we use online learning because they enjoy it, are focused and on subjects that they struggle or are not interested in they now find engaging.
• Students learn at their own pace.
• Collaboration is more positive and there are more opportunities for it
• Better student Data
• Teachers can respond better to student needs 
• Motivates hard to reach students 
• Opportunities to learn at home with online programs (Prodigygame) Curriculum based math game 1st thru 8th grade
• Blended learning courses have proven to be more engaging for various student groups – from elementary school to College.

Disadvantages of Online Learning:

• Integrating the Technology into the school - Software or Hardware needed to integrate Blended/Hybrid learning can be costly. 
• Literacy - Students and Teachers need to be computer literate, more so teachers. If we don't have the proper resources to support or increase our computer skills, Blended learning will be a very frustrating concept. 
• Professional Development - Quality PD for teachers is imperative if they are going to use technology in the classroom. This may prove expensive depending on the resource or presenter.
• Plagiarism - can happen frequently and easily, teachers need a way to monitor. 
• Pace of Advancement - A teachers assigns a video or assignment through Google Classroom, students may procrastinate and play on Youtube, sometimes maybe difficult to motivate students, need to keep them engaged.

State of Distance Learning today in America: 

• 50 percent of all High School courses will be given online by 2019. 
• Today's generation of pupils is frequently referred to as Generation Y or the Millennial Generation, "Born with Technology in their Blood", 94% of these students use the internet for school work. 
• Screenager - a teenager who spends a lot of time on an electronic screen. activities include: emails, texting, instant messaging, web surfing and online gaming

• 71% of students believe that virtual learning provides increased flexibility to take classes.

• 2016 students taking online courses grew to 5.8 million nationally
• One in four students are enrolled in online courses (2016 Online Learning Consortium)

Here are the differences of...

Digital Immigrant / Digital Native

Administration, Supervisors, Superintendent:

"In studies contrasting blends of online and face-to-face instruction with conventional face-to-face classes, blended instruction has been more effective."

US Dept of Education, 2010

Your probably wondering what this all about. It's about the state of learning today in America through online learning. Why am I showing this to you, because I want you to be aware of how online learning affects our students,staff,administration and society as a whole. We need to embrace online learning, it's advantages/disadvantages because with Digital Natives in the classroom technology is not going anywhere it is evolving. We as teachers need to conform (especially veteran teachers who are pre Digital Natives) because for us and our students to be successful we need to understand this online learning environment. I want to give you Administration an overview "Snapshot" of where we are today with online learning and I wanted to let you know that we as a school need to switch our focus from traditional and online learning to Blended also called Hybrid learning. This gives us both the classroom atmosphere and the online learning atmosphere combined into one. I shared with you some videos, billboards and advantages and disadvantages of online learning, what I want to share with you now is why it is so important to transition to Blended Learning. There are more advantages then disadvantages to this learning and I am going to show you how the disadvantages I explained can be flipped to positives. Blended learning is engaging, fun, collaborative and knowledgeable to our students. I am proposing the following to you as to why Blended (Hybrid) Learning is so important to and why we need to grasp it and run with it.

Benefits of Blended / Hybrid Learning

The hybrid course format provides an opportunity to take advantage of both the face-to-face and online formats. Having some in-person sessions retains the class social dynamic and its sense of connection among students and faculty, while decreasing the amount of scheduled class time and commuting time for students and faculty. 1

• Cost-effectiveness - Remember how this was a disadvantage (Integrating the Technology into the school - Software and Hardware needed to integrate can be costly) read the following. 

Most of us like strategies that can save our organization money. And blended learning is one of them! Including more online options in your training program saves on travel and missed work. When you are hosting live events online, you eliminate employee and instructor travel COSTS. When the venue is your own desk, that’s clearly a savings over large rooms! 2 A tremendous amount of the software is free all you need is the hardware. A PC, Laptop or Ipad which we already have plenty of will do the trick, the software (free as I said, most of them) here are some examples, code.org, khan academy, stem playground, prodigygame, all are free and what is nice is they keep progress reports of students to show levels of accomplishment that teachers/administration and even parents can follow. Also don't forget Youtube, when used correctly it has a plethora of information that can be transformed into a lesson using various software such as edpuzzle.com to transform it into a learning module with a quiz attached. 

• Efficiency

With a well-planned blended learning strategy, you can efficiently and quickly deliver your lesson. You will also save time that can be spent on differentiation and more engaging future lesson plans.     

• Extended Reach - Remember the disadvantage of PD

   Using Blended Learning reduces teaching time in the classroom and PD time. Both the teachers and students benefit from this because when you put the lesson in some type of digital format whether a video, quiz or google doc (for example) you can give high quality content plus for teachers (actually the school the cost is minimal). Teachers can use different digital tools to explain and enhance the lesson (edpuzzle, youtube, skype) and for teacher pd time the training your are receiving via PD is in the same type of format. This frees up the instructors to teach the more difficult products in technology face to face and reduces COST to the school because they are focusing on one subject per se not all of them.  

• Flexibility

Complex topics can be presented in the classroom, while other subject matter can be available online this helps to reduce COST. With an online component, you’ll also increase flexibility and convenience over how and when your employees participate in training.

• Schedule - Remember the disadvantage of Pace of Advancement

This one is manly for the teachers. Some training methods are synchronous, meaning everybody participates together at a set time. Others are asynchronous, and participants do not need to adhere to a set time. 3 This benefit is very important because you can have a time for collaboration and then a time to do individual work that can be brought together at another time. Students can brainstorm on there own, do research and then bring there ideas to the table if the lesson calls for it. If not they still have gained valuable knowledge face to face and alone.

• Who is leading?

This aspect of training considers who is leading the learner through the material and let's not forget the teachers. 

Instructor-led training is great for complex topics, where it’s useful to offer in-depth explanations or expert opinion in immediate response to questions as they arise. Self-paced training, on the other hand, is more of an individual pursuit and gives the learner control over when to move ahead in the material. 4 This is also true for teachers. Teachers need a support system to go with their training. If a teacher has the ability to reach an instructor or technology representative either thru email, phone or video conference they will feel that much more comfortable with new technology and it won't be a burden or something they are afraid of. Change is tough, we all go through it but if we can make a smooth transition, then all will benefit. 

Some teachers, experts say, still are reluctant to use technology, mostly because of a lack of time, a lack of resources, or a lack of confidence in their ability to use the available technology. 5

Here are a few solutions to fix the teacher/technology reluctance in the classroom:

• I understand we are all nervous of change but it is imperative we keep up with this technology generation, one thing we can do to help teachers is; Principals need to use technology and support their teachers with extra staff development if necessary. 
• Provide some sort of incentive. Why as a teacher should I implement this into my lessons/teaching. Give the teacher an extra day off, for example. 
•  Remember, most teachers are very busy; they're already juggling many tasks. Try to make things as easy as possible, and provide them with time to learn the technology before expecting them to use it.
• Show them how it will save time. It may take a while, possibly a full school yer to get use to the new technology and be honest about it. When a teacher is creating a lesson plan or grading papers show them how a software program will help save time and energy that can be used year after year and the information will be readily available, a great time saver. 
• Support,Support,Support, I can't say it enough, if the teachers feel they have support in place they will be more willing and receptive to integrating technology.

"In studies contrasting blends of online and face-to-face instruction with conventional face-to-face classes, blended instruction has been more effective."

US Dept of Education, 2010

1 "Hybrid Learning - Hybrid and Online Learning - UW Bothell." https://www.uwb.edu/learningtech/hybrid-and-online-learning/hybrid-learning/about-hybrid-learning/benefits. Accessed 1 Dec. 2017.

2,3,4 "The 7 Most Important Benefits of Blended Learning - KnowledgeWave." 6 Sep. 2016, http://www.knowledgewave.com/blog/benefits-of-blended-learning. Accessed 4 Dec. 2017.

5 "Education World: Encouraging Teacher Technology Use." http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech159.shtml. Accessed 7 Dec. 2017.

Benefits of Online Learning

• You can learn whatever you want - If a student is really into geography, then they can go to Google Earth and learn more in depth information about geography, landmarks, physical features, atmosphere, etc
• Comfort - All materials are online and students can engage in these lessons not only in class but at home in the peace and quiet of there rooms, library, etc. wherever they feel comfortable, this can help with retaining and learning information because you are relaxed.
• Self paced - This one is a little tricky because assignments will be due at a specific time but students will have flexibility and the opportunity to engage, collaborate and
• Self-directed learning games encourage engagement
• With an internet connection, there are no geographical barriers.
• Online learning enhances computer and Internet proficiency.

Why Hybrid/Blended over only online learning ?
As you can see......

I have given you above the benefits of both Blended and Online learning but what you didn't know is Blended takes into consideration the online learning advantages also which makes it much more efficient, effective and engaging (the 3 E's) to the teacher/learner because we as the administration are all about the students and teachers, that should be our main focus. Also, I highlighted a very important word, Cost.

Cost, Cost, Cost. As a school this to you (administration) is extremely important. I know that anywhere I can save the school funds to be used for other purposes or by just saving the school money it is a benefit all around, and It could help save someones career. 

Here are a few questions that I would like you, the Administration to look over, see my answer and hopefully it makes sense that we should incorporate this into our school system. 

Do I think our school should have more hybrid/blended learning ?

Absolutely, and if we take the Blended and Online learning Benefits and incorporate them together in our school under the Blended learning umbrella,

the advantages are enormous. Flexibilty, cost reduction, self-direct, differentiation, proficient Professional Development, flexibility, the list goes on and on how well this would increase our students learning knowledge, because the main goal is to "Teach the kids" but have them learn in the most effective means so they retain the information. A vast amount of learning within Blended falls under two principles: 

Spatial Contiguity Principle – People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen. ...Temporal Contiguity Principle – People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively. 5

This is one of the most powerful things Blended learning gives to the students. These principles help to keep relative information in working memory, long term memory and it paints a picture so students are able to recall what they have learned. 

• When corresponding portions of narrations and animation are presented at the same time, the learner is more likely to be able to hold mental representations of both in working memory at the same time, and thus the learner is more likely to be able to build mental connections between verbal and visual representations. P96 ,6

When you combine these principles students can be very powerful, they will remember and be able to deliver information more easily because it is in long term memory and because of how it was delivered that is key. 

Doesn't this sound like something we should add to our schools, don't you (the administration) believe we can take advantage of this and give our students the best education possible. I say yes and I just gave you concrete evidence of it. 

Do I think the way our school uses or implements blended/online learning is off the mark ?

Why ? How can it be better ?

We do a fairly good job of implementing online learning, but if we follow my advantages/benefits above then our school will stand out from the rest. Our students will be well educated, engaged, encouraged, and because it is something that they grew up with (technology) they are more willing to do assignments and lessons given to them. Teachers, as long as we encourage them and give them outstanding Professional Development and Support they will be willing to use the technology in the classroom which will benefit all. How can it be even better, by using the powerful software products available to us such as blogger, schoology, game based learning programs to name a few that enhance learning to the fullest. 

Positioning myself as the leader about hybrid/blended learning in our school, how would I start the process ? 

• Taking the information from this blog, highlighting what is important to our school that we don't already have implemented and start the process.
• Get with trainers who can give PD to the teachers/paraprofessionals first, they are our front line and we need them to be comfortable with the technology, if they are receptive then they will be that much more willing to teach using it. Also, make sure they have support all the time, thru email, messaging and video conferencing. 
• The school needs to be ready for this technological advancement, make sure you have the software, hardware, internet, etc ready so the transition is a smooth one. 
• Lastly, parents are important, we need them to help. Everyone has a media device, cell phone, ipad, tablet, pc, etc. Show them the importance of using this as an educational device and how it will benefit there child.

In Conclusion:

Blended learning is the way to go, its combines traditional classroom techniques with technology that can be a powerful teaching tool. I believe we need to use all available resources to create a classroom that is an Enriching learning experience, Greater opportunity for collaboration, individual/differentiated learning plans, Reduced cost for schools and a learning environment that responds to the needs of all students. I love the image below, it shows all the hardwork and dedication by all (Administration/Staff/Students) and this is what you get out of it, thank you

5 "12 Principles of Multimedia Learning." http://hartford.edu/academics/faculty/fcld/data/documentation/technology/presentation/powerpoint/12_principles_multimedia.pdf. Accessed 4 Dec. 2017.

6 "Tech Ed Quotes: Chapter 6: Temporal Contiguity Principle." http://quotes-te.blogspot.com/2006/06/chapter-6-temporal-contiguity-principle.html. Accessed 4 Dec. 2017.

Resources: 

https://elearningindustry.com/social-presence-in-online-learning-7-things-instructionaldesigners-can-improve 

http://www4.uwm.edu/ltc/hybrid/about_hybrid/index.cfm

https://blended.online.ucf.edu/about/what-is-blended-learning/

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2012/07/25/study-online-learningoutcomes-similar-to-classroom-results

https://www.teachthought.com/learning/the-definition-of-blended-learning/

https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blended-and-online-learning/

https://www.teachthought.com/technology/the-benefits-of-blended-learning/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/current-status-future-k-12-online-education-us-casetankut-aslanta%C5%9F/ http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6722

https://myelearningworld.com/6-disadvantages-of-blended-learning/

https://www.easy-lms.com/help/lms-knowledge-center/blended-learningadvantages/item10386

https://www.uwb.edu/learningtech/hybrid-and-online-learning/hybrid-learning/about-hybrid-learning/benefits

https://elearningindustry.com/5-advantages-of-online-learning-education-without-leaving-home

http://www.dreambox.com/blog/8-ways-online-learning-really-benefits-kids-and-parents

http://www.knowledgewave.com/blog/benefits-of-blended-learning

http://quotes-te.blogspot.com/2006/06/chapter-6-temporal-contiguity-principle.html