Late last year, we published a blog post on new evolutions on top of the Station Rotation blended-learning models that we’d been hearing about from educators on our Blended Learning Universe (BLU). Our friends at Education Elements didn’t agree fully with the way we characterized these shifts. In the spirit of healthy debate, we sat […]

2016 BLU trends report

January 27, 2017 | by Clifford Maxwell

  One of the principal reasons we created the Blended Learning Universe (BLU) school directory was so that we could more efficiently and effectively keep our finger on the pulse of blended learning. As schools and districts continue to join, and as current schools and districts update their profiles year after year, the BLU school […]

In a field aiming to shift educational practices from the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Age, educators on the ground today work in a distinctly brave new world. Leaders who are innovating around classroom instruction by adopting nascent practices of blending and personalizing learning are still on the periphery of a system very much entrenched […]

Teachers are managers—so let’s give them the tools to manage

January 24, 2017 | by Julia Freeland Fisher

Good management is hard. Typically, employees grow into manager roles over time. In most industries, employees must first prove themselves effective at their own job; then, they may take on some administrative duties; and only much later do leaders oversee large groups of employees and become responsible for motivating, training, and retaining them. But two […]

Why educators are moving away from a Station Rotation model

December 13, 2016 | by Clifford Maxwell

The Station Rotation has consistently reigned as the most popular blended-learning model implemented by elementary schools. Of the 235 active elementary schools currently profiled in the BLU school directory, 136, or 58 percent, of them have a Station Rotation program. Over the past few months, however, we’ve started to see a number of these schools […]

The Enriched Virtual model allows students to complete the majority of coursework online at home or outside of school, but attend school for required face-to-face learning sessions with a teacher. Unlike the Flipped Classroom, Enriched Virtual programs usually don’t require daily school attendance; some programs may only require twice-weekly attendance, for example. The Enriched Virtual […]