Based on The Learning Collective’s experience presenting at the Online Education Symposium for Independent Schools (OESIS), we expect many more independent schools to examine the viability of blended learning in the next 1-2 years.

Two of the bigger insights we drew from the conference are:

1. In part due to budget necessities, California charter schools are far ahead of independent schools (in California and nationally) in implementing blended learning programs.
2. Many independent schools that are currently considering blended learning are looking into blended learning to give their schools a competitive advantage over nearby schools

Related articles

• Blended learning focus for Calif Charter Schools conf in San Diego

Carnegie Corporation of New York has funded the development of this blended learning planning process and evaluation tool.  There is nothing quite like this evaluation tool in the marketplace.  Importantly, once developed, this tool may be available for other schools to use.

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• 13 Real-World Examples Of Blended Learning
• Embarking on Year Two: Moving Beyond Blended Learning
• Using Data to Customize for Kids

As Kingsmead’s iPad program grows, the school has turned to The Learning Collective to help teachers further incorporate iPads into daily classroom activities and facilitate personalized learning.  Also, we’re helping the school better leverage their MacBooks for teaching and learning.

TLC Member Joquetta Johnson, aka The Digital Diva, with support from other TLC Members, will provide Kingsmead with the assistance they need.

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• iPads in the classroom reinvigorate teachers
• My personal learning environment (PLE)
• 10 Popular Tools Being Used On iPads In The Classroom

This is The Learning Collective’s second engagement with UCLA.  See what we did with the Tarjan Center previously.

The California Parent Trigger (other laws have since passed in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas) is an historic new law that gives parents in California the right to organize and demand a real change at their child’s failing school.  Under the Parent Trigger, parents at persistently low-performing schools can organize and transform their school.  If they are able to gather 51% of parent signatures at their school their district must implement one of four turnaround models.  The parents in Adelanto collected 70% of parent signatures and are converting their school to a charter school.

This represents an entirely new direction in education reform based on greater parental rights.  This fight for parents’ rights has been frequently covered in the national press.  It’s such a big deal that there’s even a major motion picture, Won’t Back Down, that just opened based on the parents’ and Parent Revolution’s work in Los Angeles.

The Learning Collective is honored to have been selected to play a role in this important initiative!

Related articles

• Public School Parents Stage a Coup in California
• A struggling school, a bitter fight over ‘parent trigger’ law and no tidy Hollywood ending (a la ‘Won’t Back Down’) in sight

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• How to Succeed with Blended Learning
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Though they could be.

These are 10 excellent apps that are worth your looking into:

1. Edmodo … Teachers and students stay connected and share information
2. Quick Graph … Ditch the Texas Instruments dinosaur and use this graphic calculator
3. Evernote … Widely used app for note taking and syncing across devices – if you have a 1:1 digital device program at your school Evernote could be the student note-taking method of choice
4. 3D Cell Simulation and Stain Tool … Excellent for exploring the make-up of a cell in biology class
5. Socrative … Check for student understanding in real-time using games and quizzes
6. ScreenChomp … Create and expand upon tricky lessons
7. Educreations Interactive Whiteboard … Turn your iPad into a recordable whiteboard
8. Democracrynow! … Discuss alternative news in social studies
9. Google Translate … Translate words and phrases into 60 languages
10. Exit Ticket … We haven’t used it as it comes to market in August but digitizing exit tickets has great potential

Here are some additional apps worth exploring – for a price:

• Brainpop … New animated movie daily for elementary and middle school … free access, requires subscription
• My Editing Buddy … Peer editing and writing for elementary students ($0.99)
• Infinote … Organizing to-do lists and your life ($2.99)
• Frog Dissection … Greener alternative for teaching dissection in the classroom ($3.99)
• GoodReader … Read and annotate many types of files ($4.99)
• Machinarium … Animated puzzle game that is a good child/parent activity (does not work on iPad1) ($4.99)
• Bobo Explores Light … Stunning app about the exploration and understanding of light ($4.99)
• Intro to Math … For preschoolers and early elementary ($4.99)
• eClicker … Teachers check for understanding … pricey at $14.99 but worth it because that’s one price for the entire classroom of iPads

Related articles

• 7 Great iPad Educational Apps (teacherlingo.com)
• Top 7 FREE iPad Apps for Tutors: Summer 2012 Edition (socrato.com)
• Teachers Guide on The Use of iPad in education (teacherlingo.com)
• Educreations Adds to Interactive Whiteboard Lesson App (betakit.com)
• One Music Class – One iPad – Now What? (freetech4teachers.com)
• Camden-Rockport school seeks more iPads after kindergartners see education gains (bangordailynews.com)
• 10 incredible iPad apps for education (thenextweb.com)
• The Ultimate Simplified Guide to The Use of Evernote in Education (educatorstechnology.com)
• 15 Great Resources for Educational Apps for Teachers, Parents and Educators (educatorstechnology.com)

• 2.1 million of the 55 million K-12 students nationally are in charter schools
• Lots of discussions on BYOD (bring your own devices) were happening at both conferences
• Many online teachers know their students better now than when those same teachers taught in traditional brick and mortar classrooms.
• Khan Academy will soon launch an improved suite of services and technical assistance for educators
• There’s an app for everything … including a good one for the Common Core
• There’s an increasing need for companies such as Junyo that help schools use data, across digital learning providers, to inform instruction
• Twitter is being used increasingly for teacher professional development
• There are a couple interesting new videoconferencing technologies: iSee is an interesting mix of video conferencing and virtual worlds … think Second Life with real-time video-based avatars.  VGo is robot-based, mobile videoconferencing
• 1:1 computing is best if it’s a mix of devices – iPads, netbooks, etc.
• Portugal, Turkey and Uruguay have 1:1 national computing programs.
• With all of the apps available, the Texas Instruments graphic calculators are becoming obsolete