photo by: Richard Gwin

Second-graders in Paula Barr's Quail Run Elementary class — from left, Richard Li, Matthew Liu, and Cayman Cook — work together on a math assignment, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015.

When students return to school in the Lawrence district next month, the majority of them will be in technology-based, blended learning classrooms.

The district will add 125 blended learning classrooms next school year, which will place hundreds of new tablets, laptops and display monitors in the hands of teachers and students. Those classrooms, though, come with a price tag of more than $6,000 each.

Combined, the 125 blended learning classrooms will be equipped with more than $775,000 worth of equipment.

“Those amounts include additional iPads, additional Macbooks and all other incidentals like the HDMI cables, the dongles, the power strips,” said Jerri Kemble, assistant superintendent of educational programs and technology.

With the new additions, about 60 percent of the district’s approximately 700 classrooms will be blended learning. The method “blends” lecture-based instruction with small-group or individual activities that rely on technology and online resources.

In addition to the $775,000 to equip the classrooms, Kemble said, a team of teachers is working on selecting apps to place on the devices. She said although an estimate of how much the apps will cost is not yet known, the district will get a volume discount of about 50 percent for the app purchases and be able to use them multiple years.

“So we will have a foundation set of apps that go on the devices that students can download from a self-service portal. Then as the year goes on, there may be additional apps,” Kemble said.

With the new devices, online material and educational apps, blended classroom teachers will seek to create more personalized and engaging lessons for students. Previously, the majority of blended classrooms were at the elementary level but will now be more evenly spread through all grade levels.

Implementation

Melanie Farney, who has two students at the secondary level, said though she agrees more technology and online content can keep students engaged and participating, the implementation has her concerned. Farney said she was told about blended learning at a school open house but received limited instruction on how to access class materials online.

“In the last school year, all of a sudden my kids are saying, ‘I don’t have a textbook, everything is online,'” Farney said.

Teachers who use the blended learning method may choose not to have a paper textbook and can use websites, online texts or a combination of all three to teach material, according to Angelique Nedved, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.

“It’s at their discretion,” Nedved said. “I’ve seen everything from all content is digital in some classrooms while other classrooms feel it’s only appropriate to maybe put their assessment on there.”

Farney said that her daughter’s middle school math class used mostly online material, and that she had trouble at first using the online platform to complete assignments. In order to be successful going forward, Farney said, more detailed communication is needed so parents can help their students when they have issues with the technology or the homework itself.

“I think just keeping the parents in the loop with information on how to access the same materials that the students are accessing,” Farney said. “That way we can look and see, ‘OK, so this is how they’re teaching this.'”

As the new classrooms come online next school year, Nedved said the district will take a broad perspective in its communication to families.

“We are continuing to investigate additional ways to communicate with our families and involving them in some informational nights at the beginning of school, to be available and answer questions,” Nedved said, noting that information could also include online videos or papers sent home.

Future expansion

Blended learning in the district began with an initial field test of eight classrooms in the 2012-13 school year. In the four years since, more than 400 blended classrooms have been added. After the upcoming school year, though, that pace may slow down.

Previously, Nedved said the district’s plan was to make the more than 700 classrooms in the district blended by the year 2020, eventually making it mandatory that all teachers convert their classrooms. At this point, though, district administration won’t necessarily be putting a mandate in place, Nedved added.

“I think it will definitely be a discussion with the school board and what their vision is for moving forward, obviously informed and inclusive of those who have participated,” Nedved said.

Marcel Harmon, vice president of the Lawrence school board, echoed Nedved’s view. Harmon said the board’s approach to implementation of blended learning has become more flexible and that it will continue to assess expansion year-by-year. Those assessments will include feedback from teachers, parents and students.

“I see it being kind of more flexible as it evolves, and I don’t know that we will ever officially mandate that everybody adopt a specific way of doing it,” Harmon said. “Again, we’ll continue to assess that as we go.”