Making "Blended Learning" Unblurred

Whether it’s in a water cooler conversation, a TV commercial, or a network news story, the word "online" gets tossed around quite flippantly these days. That's why some Huntley parents have been asking for clarification on Consolidated School District 158's plan to bring online learning to Huntley High School.

Prompting parents’ questions is the District 158 decision last winter allowing teachers to incorporate Blended Learning in a handful of HHS classrooms beginning next year. In Blended Learning Programs, students receive traditional classroom instruction while also utilizing online tools and education materials. But while the definition of Blended Learning appears straightforward, D158 parents have been doing their own homework to make sure they understand what is being offered.

“We did have a meeting (with parents) recently to help explain everything,” said Marisa Burkhart, D158’s Director of Educational Technology. “Based on what I’ve heard from parents and what I’ve been hearing from parents, I do think that when people hear ‘online’ it can mean so many different things to so many different people.”

As a result, Burkhart says she and her colleagues continue to emphasize the phrase “Blended Learning,” as a means of clarification.

“We’ve been trying to use the terminology ‘Blended Learning’ even though the phrase can really mean a lot of different things as well,” Burkhart said. “But (the classes) are not truly online. The students will still have a relationship with their teachers, and we think that’s important. This Blended Learning model is the best of both worlds.”

The change is also designed to prepare students for college where, Burkhart says, online learning is quickly becoming the norm.

“When kids get to college everything is online, and I’m a little too old to have experienced that, but I’m experiencing it now with my postgraduate studies,” Burkhart said. “So we really feel that having (the online) experience, combined with the safety of still having the teacher and everything built into that, is a real valuable experience for our students.”

Targeted to juniors and seniors with a 2.0 grade point average, Blended Learning courses will be held during first or eighth periods in no more than six areas of study including: recent fiction, U.S. history, American diversity, biology, biology honors, and pre-calculus. Whether or not some or all six classes will be taught depends on enrollment, which is currently underway. Still, no matter how many Blended Learning classes are conducted, Burkhart says the students enrolled in those courses will use the same textbooks, have the same resources, and be taught the same curriculum as their counterparts.

The big difference will be the utilization of the Haiku Learning Management System, an educational supplement produced by Haiku Learning Systems in Goshen, Indiana. 

“(Haiku) is just a web-based software that allows our teachers to facilitate the content with the students,” Burkhart said. “(Haiku) is where they’ll make their assignments and anchor their content. But all the content that’s anchored on Haiku is coming from us.”

That teachers will be uploading course materials to the Internet is nothing new. Burkhart says D158 teachers already maintain web pages, use digital resources, and incorporate online simulations in their classes.

“I don’t want to say there’s not much to (the switch) and diminish what our teachers are doing, but they’re really kind of ready for this,” she said. “The difference for the teachers is not, ‘Where is my content coming from or what am I teaching?’ But rather, ‘How am teaching it? How am I going to engage students differently? How can I use these technology tools that I have now, that I never had before, to do things differently?’”

Among the benefits to the Blended Learned programs are: online discussion groups, the creation of individual or group Wiki-pages, and the ability to turn in homework assignments online. Additionally, Blended Learning courses will have “flexible enrollment components”, hence the first and eighth period scheduling; but, as Burkhart pointed out, attendance requirements will be in place. Perhaps the biggest upside to the Haiku program is parents can regularly and easily monitor their kid’s progress.

“In the Haiku LMS, we also have the ability to set up what’s called The Shadowing Account for other people that might be important in the child’s life, like a coach or a guidance counselor,” Burkhart said.

Where Blended Learning classes and their counterparts will not differ is class size. Both will be kept comparably the same.

Even with the school board’s approval, and the fact that some teachers already have course material ready to upload, Burkhart says that before the program can officially be rolled out, there is much that needs to be addressed including: meeting Illinois’ Remote Education Act, finalizing the curriculum, and streamlining the technology to be used.

“We would have liked to been able to connect students with a cellular company to provide a device for them, but at this point we’re not,” Burkhart said. “Students are providing their own device, but we’re providing the WiFi access at school.”