Digital Learning Day started in 2012 as a way to highlight and celebrate the ways that technology is being used in K-12 education. Technology reaches all levels of education and can have a huge impact in the adult education world as well. Which tech tools would you like to celebrate this year? If you’ve used technology to extend your classroom opportunities beyond the face-to-face environment, you might have already used blended learning. Here at the EdTech Center, we’ve been spending a good amount of time thinking about best practices for blended learning.

In honor of Digital Learning Day, we will be sharing our 3-hour self-paced multimedia course, Introduction to Blended Learning, to any who wish to try it out. The course will be available from February 23 through March 2. Watch for our email on the 23rd, or mark your calendar to visit the course page next week for instructions to get started.

Introduction to Blended Learning is one of three Special Topics courses that are part of the IDEAL Consortium’s member resources. The IDEAL Consortium, a project of the EdTech Center, brings together states interested in developing distance and blended education programs to meet the online learning needs of adult learners who need to study at a distance or wish to extend learning beyond the classroom. To learn more about the benefits of IDEAL Membership and to see if your state is a member, visit http://ideal.worlded.org.

But you don’t need to wait until Digital Learning Day to get started!

• Visit our webinar archive to listen to Blended Learning in the Adult Education Classroom. This webinar explored questions such as: What is blended learning? Why could blended learning be useful to your adult education program? What are some different approaches to adding an online learning component? Participants are introduced to a new, free, online guide to the blended learning classroom, written by webinar presenter David J. Rosen and published by Essential Education.

• Check out the newly revised and updated IDEAL Distance Education and Blended Learning Handbook.

• Register for a facilitated online course!

• Blended and Project-Based Learning
  March 7 – May 2, estimated completion time: 30 hours
  Can you remember how much fun it was to do a project for school – some of my fondest grade school memories were projects. If you haven’t been using project-based learning (PBL) in your classroom, join us to refresh your understanding of project-based learning, while exploring how it could be done in the context of a blending learning approach. Combining new technology tools with project-based learning allows teachers to introduce their classes to problem-solving tasks, enhance learners’ critical thinking, and improve students’ research and communication skill, leveraging both face-to-face and online learning options. Gather together your colleagues (learning is always more fun with a partner) and register today!

• Blended Learning for English Language Learners
  April 26 – May 23, estimated completion time: 12 hours
  Explore how and when to use blended learning to enhance your work with adult English language learners (ELLs). Investigate ways educators have structured their curricula to include one or more blended learning approaches. See examples of how blended learning can be implemented using the free USA Learns website as an example. Leave the course with a draft lesson that uses blended learning in either face-to-face or distance settings. Register today!