Arkansas' Own Team Digital will provide an opportunity for school leadership teams to start a blended learning implementation plan. Consider sending teams (up to four), including administrators and lead teachers, who will be prepared to guide their schools in creating a student-focused environment. Blended learning is an approach to instruction that combines face-to-face learning at a brick-and-mortar location with online learning where the student has some element of control over time, place, path, and pace. When we begin to envision increasing student access to a flexible and personalized education, we should strategically plan around critical foundational components such as policy, funding, professional learning, infrastructure, home connectivity, communication, student engagement, and others. Participants will be able to:
- Define blended learning
- Distinguish between blending learning and technology-rich instruction
- Reflect on how various new school models would translate into their own classroom/school/district
- Analyze the critical components of a strong blended learning foundation
- Devise a blended learning implementation plan for transitioning to a student-focused environment