Technology in the Classroom

In the search for more effective teaching methods a new technique called The Blended Learning Model (BLM) seems to be showing great promise in LA schools.

In 2008 Mayor Villaraigosa created a partnership between 22 impoverished and failing schools in LAUSD and the City of Los Angeles.  This partnership, called The Partnership for LA Schools, strives to be an example for other failing LAUSD schools on how to achieve success. It is one of the largest turnaround projects in the nation.

The Partnership accredits its success to the BLM. This model redesigns the traditional classroom structure of one teacher to up to 30 students and shrinks that ratio to 16:1 or better. It accomplishes such low ratios by incorporating computer lessons into the curriculum. The students spend a portion of class time working on individualized lessons online and a portion of their time face to face with a teacher. The Partnership’s BLM focuses its students on STEM (Science, technology, engineering and Math) education.

Each individual school in The Partnership has management and budgetary independence as granted by the agreement with the LAUSD. Its action plan to fix the failing schools is to address instructional, cultural and policy issues like teacher effectiveness, targeted student intervention and family and community engagement.

Providing hardware and software for its 16,000 students is not a cheap task. The partnership has received $200,000 fromDirecTV to fund their new online math programs and incentive program.  As a part of this incentive program teachers and parents may also earn rewards if their student performs well. Students that perform well may earn iPad Minis and DirecTV service for a year.

Other schools in LA and state wide are also starting to implement more technology into their classroom routine especially after the state gave out $212 million in technology vouchers to LA public schools in 2004. The funds stem from the unclaimed portion of an $1.1 billion antitrust settlement with Microsoft. The state allocated more funds to schools that served more impoverished neighborhoods. The downside to these vouchers is school must pay for the technology first with their own funds and then apply for reimbursements. Many schools may not have the money upfront to purchase the hardware and software necessary to create their own BLM.

The time to use the vouchers is running out. One set expires in April and the rest in September.  $66 million remained unused including more than $10 million for LAUSD. Unfortunately schools that do not have the money upfront may never be able to redeem their vouchers. They may not be able to implement a BLM for a while yet.

One elementary charter school that has been able to implement the BLM is KIPP’s Empower Academy. Similarly to how The Partnership schools run their BLM this school rotates students between face to face instruction and time on the computers right there in their classroom.  Depending on the subject the class may be split in half between a teacher and the computers or between two teachers and the computers.  This allows the teachers to keep a steady 14:1 student to teacher ratio. 

KEA is unique in that each child receives individualized instruction on the computer. If they are doing well they can continue at a fast pace but if they are not understanding the material the program continues with the same material. Their system is also helpful in that it collects and reports data to teachers about what specific concepts a student is struggling with. This is beneficial to the student because in a large class setting a teacher may not be able to pick up on a student’s weakness right away. 

Another school that has taken on the BLM is Alliance Tennenbaum Family Technology High School with success is. This school is part of a charter management organization called Alliance College Ready Public Schools. Their system is unique in that they have added a third component to their rotation. Not only do students work face to face with a teacher and spend time with the computer but they also are able spend a portion of their class time working with their peers.  

Some, like managing editor at Education Sector Susan Headdean, consider schools that implement the BLM as risk takers because the effectiveness of the BLM has little research behind it. She also says that, “For technology to make a difference in student learning, it must be integral to instruction, and it must come with humans attached.”

In 2010 one research review found that students that completed part or all of their classes online did better on average than their peers who did not. However the review proposed that a mix of face to face and online instruction was better than either one alone.