Blending Learning and Technology

As someone who instructs teachers (grades 7-12) on implementing new technologies into the classroom and has presented at numerous conferences on this subject - I have found that blended learning (process of incorporating many different learning styles) works better than traditional methods of teaching if teachers are given proper support - especially curriculum support. Also,  students are much more engaged when they are learning and using 21 century tools (such as podcasting, wikis, Photo Story etc.).

The interesting thing is that teachers actually do not have to know how to use these technologies - they only have to know what these technologies can do. This concept takes the pressure off teachers to learn these skills.

It is up to students to learn new technologies on their own by watching on-line video tutorials and searching the Internet. For example search “tutorial podcast” on Youtube.com and you get dozens of tutorials - many using Audacity which is free. Below is the tutorial we use with students - (most of the teachers who assign podcasts do not know how to create them)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHgD6cVv9QU

The video below is from a teacher who actually did not know how to use the technology she assigned - Her students taught themselves how to create a wiki, do podcasts and use Microsoft’s PhotoStory. The assignment they used is posted on connectingeducation.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fGsgYpLgrs

We have also started to implement Google Apps (education edition). This product is a huge success - it makes learning more efficient and uses the same tools as in business for collaboration. Students need very little instruction on how to use it - because the look and feel of Google Apps is the same as the email - chat - calendar applications they use in their personal lifes. Below are a couple of students discussing its use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miYvAh09M_M

All the technologies we assign to students are available for free - so students can work on them at home for no cost.