Blended Learning Pilot Day 3

I have been piloting blended learning in my physics classes this week. I intend to make the plunge next year, and wanted to have a few weeks of data to work with as I develop the curriculum over the summer for next year. I will write more about this later, but I want to share a quick update.

Today is day four. Students created google accounts (my school does not yet have google apps) and goorulearning accounts on the macbooks and netbooks I have borrowed from other departments for two weeks. I have had each of five different classes for a 40 minute period and a 100 minute block.

The students are free to pursue the goals outlined for them in my gooru collection at their own pace. They are also free to bounce between working on the computer, working on any of four different lab activities and one experiment, and a station where they work collaboratively (MIT style) on physics problems with white boards.

This is a drastic change from my traditional instruction – and we are all loving it. Informally, the students say they appreciate the ability to move at their own pace, and they like being able to re-play the web resources they are interacting with. I am able to have at least quadruple the number of individual and small group student contacts in each class, and I am finding that everyone is engaged throughout the class.

Below is a photo I took in class today that I colorized and annotated for student anonymity.

Blended Physics Classroom