1. Blended Learning for
History & Social Science courses
Mike Gwaltney
mikegwaltney.net/blog
Twitter: @MikeGwaltney
Email: mike@mikegwaltney.net
Global Education Conference 2010

3. Essential Questions
for Conversation
 What is Blended Learning?
 Why is it beneficial for our students?
 What strategies work best in a Blended Learning
model?
 What resources can be employed in traditional
classes to start blending teaching and learning?
 What challenges are presented by a move to a
Blended Learning model?

4. Classroom Online
Joins the best aspects of face-to-
face instruction with the best
aspects of online education.

5. Effective? Relevant?
• There is early evidence that
a "blended" instructional approach can result in
learning outcome
gains (http://www.uic.edu/depts/oee/blended/work
shop/bibliography.pdf).
• 93% of Higher Ed instructors and admin say they
are using blended learning strategies somewhere
in their institution. 7 in 10 expect more than 40%
of their schools’ courses to be blended by
2013 (Bonk, C. J. & Graham, C. R. (Eds.).
• Web Learning @ Penn State Univ.
http://weblearning.psu.edu/

6. Why Do it?
21st Century Competencies
21st CenturyTasks

7. What’s the Balance?
Goals, Policies, etc.
How much Face-to-Face time?
How much Online time?
“Web-Centric” vs. Fully Blended

8. “The Flip”Version
 Classroom time is used for interactive
experiences / discussion of big ideas
 Collaboration, CriticalThinking, Creative problem-
solving are done with instructor on the side
 Online time is used for consumption of
multimedia-rich content
 Student acquires important information on his/her own

9. Students consume content

10. Gold-Standard Blended Learning
 Student-Centered
 Students are “doing” online, teachers are facilitating /
coaching
 Students make their own meaning by applying (transferring)
what they learn to "authentic, meaningful, worthwhile
tasks” online, creating content
 PerformanceTasks and Assessments are Authentic
i.e. “real-world”
 Communicate and Collaborate
 Manage information
 Think Critically and Problem-solve
 Create own products with Authentic Audiences

11. Blogging
Debate

12. Questions so far?
 What is Blended Learning?
 Why is it beneficial for our students?
 What strategies work best in a Blended Learning model?

13. Getting Started
 Web Hosting
 Google Sites
 Blogs
 Edublogs, Wordpress, Blogger
 Learning Managements Systems (LMS)
 Blackboard, Moodle, Haiku, etc.
 Social Networks
 Ning, Facebook

14. Ning

15. Tools
Content Consumption
 Textbook Sites
 OnlineVideo
 TED,YouTube,TeacherTube,
Discovery Ed, etc.
 News sites
 RSS Feeds / Blogs
 Podcats
 iTunes, iTunes U
 GapMinder
 Newseum
Content Creation
 Images
 Flickr, Picasa, National
Archives
 ScreenCastingVideos
 Jing
 Video Uploading
 YouTube,Vimeo
 Video Creation
 Animoto
 Graphic Organizers
 bubbl.us

16. Screencasting
http://www.techsmith.com/jing/

17. Video

18. Video
http://vimeo.com/

19. http://bubbl.us/
Graphic Organizers

21. Great Online Content for History
and Social ScienceTeachers
 Teaching History withTechnology
http://www.thwt.org/
 NCSSTeacher Network:
http://ncssnetwork.ning.com/group/teachingwithtechnolo
gy
 100 Great History Blogs
http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2008/09/10/100-
awesome-blogs-for-history-junkies/

22. Web 2.0Tools for
Gold-Standard Blended Learning
Collaborate
 Google Documents
 Social Bookmarking
 Diigo, Delicious
 Wikis
 Google Sites, Wikispaces
 Microblogging and Social
Networking
 Twitter, Ning, Facebook
 Personal Learning Networks
Create
 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts
 VoiceThread Speeches,
Debates
 Storytelling
 Animoto, Prezi
 Video
 Online Discussion

25. Wikis
http://www.wikispaces.com

26. https://sites.google.com
Wikis – Google Sites

28. VoiceThread
http://voicethread.com/

29. VoiceThread embedded

30. Twitter

31. Emerging: Mobile Learning
 "We learn anywhere, anytime, anyplace; there are
opportunities to learn all around us everyday.We learn in
the home, office, on the road. Likewise, educational
content can be shaped to fit all kinds of useful delivery
media that is convenient, user-friendly, and (most
important) serves the educational need of members
without the content being shortchanged or trivialized."
Smith,J.(2001)

32. Assessing Online Learning
 Implications for Rubrics
 include 2 traits to distinguish between:
 content understanding
 product/performance quality
 Rubric must be properly weighted to reward the trait
emphasized by the task/assessment

33. Questions?
 What resources can be employed in traditional classes to
start blending teaching and learning?
 What challenges are presented by a move to a Blended
Learning model?

34. http://www.globaleducationwiki.com/

35. References
 Watson, John. Blending Learning:The Convergence of Online and Face-to-Face Education.Vienna,VA: North
American Council for Online Learning, 2008. Promising Practices in Online Learning. North American Council for
Online Learning. Web. 10 June 2010. http://www.inacol.org/research/ promisingpractices/NACOL_PP-
BlendedLearning-lr.pdf.
 Smith, Judith M. Ph.D. (2001). "Blended Learning: An Old Friend Gets a New Name." ExecutiveUpdate, Online.
http://www.gwsae.org/Executiveupdate/2001/March/blended.htm