We want to congratulate our member districts!

Welcome to the 2012 Learn21 Conference!

Conference attendees came from across the state of Ohio

On March 5^th educational professionals from all over the state of Ohio gathered in the small town of Plain City in the middle of the state to learn and collaborate around the topic of blended learning.   The 2012 Learn21 conference,  Blended Learning: Transforming the Classroom was a huge success.  The event, hosted at Tolles Career and Technical Center, provided informational sessions as well as opportunities for networking and collaboration.  Overall, the conference was attended by 185 educators, administrators, government education representatives, and educational technology staff.   These participants represented 85 different districts and organizations within the state of Ohio.  There were 28 individual breakout sessions on a variety of topics that support blended learning initiatives.

 Sessions

Jed Friedrichsen, CEO blendedschools.net

Jed Friedrichsen, CEO of blendedschools.net was the keynote speaker and captured the audience as he shared key components of a successful blended learning program.   He tied the concept of building communities of practice into fostering productive, innovative global citizenship for our students.  By helping students become “free agent” learners, they begin to seek out learning opportunities beyond traditional means.  As this transition occurs, student engagement and achievement increase.

The Blended Learning Panel Discussion (L to R) Jed Friedrichsen, John Canuel, Donald Washburn, Jim Vincent

In addition to the keynote session, the day was filled with smaller, focused breakout sessions on topics ranging from selecting the right mobile device to open educational resources to managing blended environment at the district level.   Administrators and teachers from Learn21 member districts shared their experiences in teaching blended and online courses, managing users in Blackboard, and integrating Blackboard into the classroom and community.  Representatives of Learn21 partner companies were on hand to share their resources.   These sessions focused on how the product is being used within districts to increase student success.

Collaborating over coffee

Walking through the halls of Tolles on Monday was a great reminder of why we do what we do.  Our goal is and has always been to increase educator and district collaboration to drive down cost.  Monday’s conference was a large scale example of this vision.  This conference gave representatives from so many organizations from all over the state an opportunity to collaborate, discuss and learn from one another all around a focused, current topic that so many are struggling to implement in their districts.  The connections made at the conference will undoubtedly benefit districts within the Learn21 consortium and beyond in the coming years.

A presentation on STEM in the classroom from Cincinnati Public Schools

Looking ahead, planning has already begun for next year’s event!  We are ready and excited to reach out to even more organizations and individuals.  In the spirit of collaboration and sharing, we hope to increase attendance and share even more research, ideas and strategies at the 2013 Learn21 Conference.

K-12 IT directors will need to retrofit the “break fix” ticket-based technician into a “digital classroom facilitator” that supports innovative instructional strategies that require technology as their infrastructure.

The trend to have devices that have less movable parts, mobile, and cloud-based all speak to the future needs of classroom technology support.  Classrooms are becoming a digital forest of devices from smart phones to tablets to interactive learning solutions.  Technicians will need to become “digital classroom facilitators” that listen, problem-solve, communicate and provide direction for teachers on how they best integrate digital devices for learning.  Gone are the days of a technician coming to a classroom to rarely interact with the teacher and fix a hard drive.

Rather, the focus will become supporting digital classrooms, robust data highways, managing wireless traffic and providing a QoS that supports learning 24/7/365.  The magnitude of new classroom technologies and mobile devices will shape the future for technicians roles in the K-12 environment.

The challenge for IT leadership will be to turn the “tech-jock” technician into an advocate for the teacher.  Cloud services, virtualization and mobile technologies is the engine for 21st century teaching and learning.  Jobs are changing and nothing is sacred or based on the past.  Future success will require curriculum & instruction personnel and technology personnel to merge.  The “digital classroom facilitator” must happen or schools will get caught in the rain.

Source: SatelliteBuffalo.com

• A new user experience
• Automated regrading
• UI based administrative tools
• Better reporting

The video below provides an overview of these features and much more.

Learn21 will begin our 64-bit migration along with product testing this spring.

A national effort developed to promote educational practices that encourage digital learning that focuses on a more personal, global and digital learning experience for students.  The intent of the day was to provide a platform to explore educational policies to support innovative models of teaching and learning.

Some states, school districts and advocates of digital learning are working to bring awareness to anytime, place, path and pace for learning.  Digital learning or what some refer to as online/blended learning has been a buzz in the education community.

However, this type of innovative learning will need those who make the polices to get on board and remove the barriers set in place that limit the true flexible nature of “digital learning”.

Many school districts are getting ready to be digital by collaborating, sharing services and driving down costs.  One example, Learn21, is a grass roots non-profit organization led by innovative schools from all over Ohio.  School districts in the Learn21 consortium have agreed to take on digital learning and understand how to make it work to level the playing field for all students.

There are many pieces to the puzzle that need to be in place for success.  Public schools recognize that operating in silos is not an efficient solution to be effective and compete with virtual charters.  Learn21 and their members have taken the position to “bring back’ their students from the for-profits and provide a richer and more academic learning experience much like they do in a face to face environment.

Yet, digital learning doesn’t come without challenges.  The cost of digital learning involves many factors that policy makers need to recognize.  From technology infrastructure to training, state lawmakers need to listen to education professionals and the barriers they face due to restrictions from state departments of education. Ironically, many state departments want to throw rocks at a system they preside over and then champion new schools that have no governance.  Lawmakers need to enable districts to make the digital conversion not force them to be innovative with the same business operations model.

For example, training teachers to be digital takes time in an already time strapped teacher work year.  Renting, buying or building digital content requires money and the skill set to build and assess content.  Organizations such as Quality Matters are working to assist in developing rubrics to evaluate digital content.  And what about mobile devices?  It’s a wild wild west from BYOD to “pick a tablet”. Finally, there is the “I don’t know, what I know” factor sweeping education.  We have many educators and wanna be advocates that are making decisions about digital that have never taught an online/blended class or worse yet cannot manage a tablet device themselves.

We need vision.  Vision that isn’t aligned with putting more money in someone’s pocket.  We need vision that isn’t entrenched in self-preservation.  We need leadership that truly cares about all children as if they were their own.  Learn21 will continue to advocate for all kids and going digital beyond the Digital Day hype.

1. Preferred learning environment
2. Most important software and applications
3. How often technology is used
4. Internet Access
5. The most important sites

We are also stepping up our engagement in social media. We are now working to be more engaged with our followers on Facebook and Twitter by providing people with information on the pulse of digital learning and collaborative education.

We have plans behind the scenes to continue to streamline our online services and provide our members with more tools. Stay tuned!