On September 27, 2022 AlphaPlus hosted our first Community Gabfest.

The conversation starter for the first Gabfest was Jim Tysick’s video The Way Forward.

Jim is an experienced and innovative literacy instructor who works at the Sharbot Lake location of the Northern Connections Adult Learning Centres literacy program. In the summer of 2022, he participated in the AlphaPlus Wayfinders Maker Space and created a video about changing his teaching styles to increase learner agency and independence. In The Way Forward, Jim describes how he is changing from a “sage on the stage” approach to become a “guide on the side” teacher.

Here are two quotes that inspire and inform Jim’s work:

• The one who does the work does the learning. – Terry Doyle
• The purpose of adult education is to help them learn, not to teach them all you know and thus stop them from learning. – Carl Rogers

We used a Jamboard to guide our conversation: Wayfinders Gabfest 1 Jamboard.

Resources mentioned in the video

Scott Young

• Practice Made Perfect: The 10 Keys to Optimize Improvement
• See-Do-Feedback: The Right Way To Practice

Google Applied Digital Skills

• Get Started Guide
• The Digital Skills Library indexes Google Applied Digital Skills by topic. In the search box, under name choose Applied Digital Skills to see the list.

“We are essentially social beings. We live in societies, of course; but more fundamentally perhaps, it is our participation in social communities and cultural practices that provides the very materials out of which we construct who we are, give meaning to what we do, and understand what we know.”

— Etienne Wenger, Communities of practice: where learning happens, Benchmark Magazine, Fall Issue 1991

We created this resource with the Silver Linings Café participants in June 2020. We updated it in October 2022.

The Silver Linings Café was an Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy initiative that AlphaPlus was invited to participate in.

This resource includes ideas from the Silver Linings Café instructors for how to engage learners and build community in video conferences (Zoom) during the pivot to remote learning during the COVID-19 lock down period. We were all getting used to working in this new environment and came together to share ideas, support each other and figure out how to support learners and learning.

Reference: Asynchronous vs. Synchronous Learning: A Quick Overview by Maria Ocando Finol

On this site you can read our Position Paper on Blended Learning online and browse a collection of resources to help you and the audiences you communicate with learn about blended learning as an approach.

What else you will find on this site

• Presentations  – AlphaPlus webinars about the position paper and the eNet introduction to blended learning.
• The Blended Learning Field Guide – a reflective practice tool about blended learning models and approaches.
• Blended Learning Overview – from the AlphaPlus Digital Technology for Learning site.
• The Blended Learning Toolbox – resources for applying a Blended Learning approach from the AlphaPlus Digital Technology for Learning site.
• The ProLiteracy Blended Learning Guide – and how it aligns with the AlphaPlus position paper.

and graphics you can share with staff, learners, volunteers and community partners

• Definition – the definition from the position paper
• My Life as a Blended Learner – how we Create, Communicate, Collaborate and Think Critically as lifelong learners
• Benefits – the four benefits of blended learning: Blended learning is supports self-confidence and self-reliance; encourages social connection and collaboration; provides flexibilities; and is helps manage systemic inequalities.
• Principles – the three principles of blended learning: Blended learning is learner centred; relevant and useful; and is enhanced by a strong teaching presence
• Blended Learning Infographic and the 4Cs – an infographic about the 4Cs: Be Creative, Communicate, Collaborate, and Critically Analyze

If you’d like a copy of this site to use as a starting point to adapt and expand for use in your program, please get in touch. AlphaPlus can give you a copy and support you in learning how to use a website builder such as Google Sites or Weebly as online learning spaces for learners, staff and volunteers.

Blended Learning Research

Blended Learning Resources

Blended learning models

“I’ve always found this compilation of models quite mind-boggling. I find it very difficult to keep all the permutations of a blended learning approach straight. In a conversation with some very wise literacy practitioners from Ontario, I suddenly realized why. I think that instead of reading these models of prescriptions of how to design the delivery of blended learning, we should read them as descriptions of all the ways that educators have developed and adapted a blended learning approach to specific contexts and to meet the needs and circumstances of specific learners.

There is a lot of professional knowledge and wisdom here and, perhaps more importantly, demonstrations of how that wisdom and knowledge is applied in the real world. These models are the curriculum planning frameworks in action.“

Tracey Mollins.

Contact me at tracey@alphaplus.ca to talk about blended learning delivery models.

Here are the models described on the website:

• Four Project-Based Learning Models
  • Project-Based Blended Learning
  • Inside-Out Blended Learning
  • Outside-In Blended Learning
  • Self-Directed Blended Learning

• Five Rotation Models
  • Station Rotation Blended Learning
  • Lab Rotation Blended Learning
  • The ‘Flipped Classroom’ Blended Learning
  • Individual Rotation Blended Learning
  • The Playlist Model

• Two Hybrid Models
  • Supplemental Blended Learning
  • Mastery-Based Blended Learning

• Three Remote Learning Models
  • A La Carte model
  • Remote Blended Learning (also referred to as Enriched Virtual)
  • Flex Blended Learning

Blended Learning Research

Blended Learning Resources

Blended learning curriculum frameworks

These frameworks were developed to help educators design and develop technology-rich learning environments. The frameworks help us determine the level of technology integration in the learning environment and evaluate if the technology is enhancing, extending and/or transforming learning.

Tracey Mollins

Contact me at tracey@alphaplus.ca to talk about blended learning delivery models.

These are the Frameworks described on the website

• Designing for Learning Outcomes
  • A blended learning framework – ISTE Standards for Students
  • A computer basics framework – Northstar Digital Literacy Framework
  • A computer basics / blended learning framework – Maryland Department of Labor Digital Literacy Framework for Adult Learners
  • A roadmap to reach the City of Seattle’s vision to become a more digitally equitable city, where technology’s opportunities equitably empower all residents and communities – Seattle Digital Equity Initiative Digital Skills Framework

• Designing for Learning Experiences
  • The Technology Integration Matrix
  • The Triple E Framework

• Thinking about Teaching Innovation
  • The SAMR Model – SAMR = Substitution – Augmentation – Modification – Redefinition and describes a way to think about the result of integrating digital technology for learning into a curriculum.
  • The LoTi Framework – Levels of Teaching Innovation – This is a Teaching Innovation Framework that is similar to SAMR but includes a resource for reflecting on how different learning activities fit into the framework.

• Designing for Modes of Learning
  • Bloom’s Taxonomy – Some people have done some work to align the Bloom’s Taxonomy learning domains to SAMR.
  • HEAT – H.E.A.T Framework = Higher-order thinking – Engaged learning – Authentic connections – and Technology use is a student learning framework that describes what learners are doing at different levels of digital technology integration with reference to Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Blended Learning Research

Blended Learning Resources

What are some ways to empower learners with choice?

We can make sure learners have agency over the elements of learning such as

• pace (flexibility over the flow of learning)
• path (learners make decisions about how to learn or how to demonstrate learning)
• place (blended learning opens up possibilities for learning in a variety of settings and at times convenient for learners)

Choice Boards are a type of hyperdoc where activities are organized in a grid, often like a tic-tac-toe board or a bingo board. Learners make choices about what activities they do and mark them on the grid as they finish. Unlike a proper hyperdoc, choice boards do not necessarily tale a learner through a complete learning cycle.

Using hyperdocs is also part of a blended learning approach. Here is more about hyperdocs:

• What is a HyperDoc?
• How HyperDocs Can Transform Your Teaching
• Hyperdocs in adult literacy

Here is more about Choice Boards from Ditch That Textbook:

• A good option: the choice board
• A better option: the progressive choice board

Some samples that Educator Network participants found:

• 7 Choice Board samples for remote learning
• Digital Media Design Student Choice Board
• Reading Choice Board: Story Elements (PDF)

And here is a collection of Choice Board templates from SlidesMania shared with us by Lindy Hockenbary from EDTech Teacher:

• SlidesMania Choice Board Collection

If you’d like to learn more about Choice Boards, contact Tracey.

P.S. Here is an amazing collaboration non-hyperdoc choice board I saw from @modernclassproj on Twitter.

Collaboration and self-pacing? Totally possible in a Modern Classroom! Kim Myers Manning shared with our Facebook group how she sets up her whiteboard to facilitate both.

• The tweet
• My quote tweet

Canvas is a robust learning management system you can use for free.

Often called an LMS for short, a learning management system is an online platform that provides the framework and tools to handle all aspects of the learning process – it’s where you house, deliver, and track your training content.

An LMS is designed to make life easier for curriculum designers, instructors and learners. An LMS can streamline the process of identifying and assessing learning goals, keeping track of progress and collecting and presenting data for evaluating learning and how the learning environment is supporting learners.

If you’d like to learn more about Canvas or schedule a demonstration, contact Tracey or our Quick Tech Help service.