If you haven’t seen it, check out the Sitting In column from
the October 30th Melrose Free Press, penned
by Elizabeth Christopher of the Melrose Education Foundation, that speaks to
using technology in the classroom. (You can find it here: http://melrose.wickedlocal.com/article/20141104/NEWS/141109069/12456/OPINION.)
She explains, “As the technologies students are using become more digital,
school districts across the country are looking at how these tools can be
incorporated or “blended” into the classroom to improve teaching and learning”
and elucidates, “The
blended learning model allows educators to customize teaching strategies for
different learners, pilot new technology, and give students the flexibility to
repeat, augment, explore further and synthesize what they learn.” Two district
educators, MVMMS Library Media Specialist Wendy Arnold and MHS Academic
Facilitator Josh Cristiano, have worked together and separately to increase and
improve the integration of technology into the curriculum, and Ms. Christopher
provides examples of their own learning around this model and how they are
sharing that with other educators in our public schools.
Teaching and learning has changed dramatically from, well,
back in the day. Blended learning is not just the way of the future, it is the
way of now and as Ms. Arnold notes in Ms. Christopher’s article, “This is the
world our students live and play in.”
