Blending_Learning_Environments_Conference

April 2, 2009 Durham Academy Lower School 3501 Ridge Road Durham, NC 27707
 * Blending Learning Environments - When Brick and Mortar** **Meet** **Virtual**

A very tentative schedule as we are still actively fitting the pieces together.
8:30 Registration 8:45 Introduction and Welcome 9:00 Morning Session - Liz R. Pape, CEO, [|The Virtual High School]

Participants will start off the morning by gaining a bird’s eye view of the national and international landscape of virtual education. You’ll discover just who is setting the bar and how high that bar is. Once we have an understanding of the current scope of virtual education we’ll look a little closer home. Topics to be covered include the following: education play in our schools?
 * Maximizing the Possibilities–As we are all called on to do “more with less” how do we maximize the possibilities and what role can and should virtual
 * Teaching and Learning in a Virtual Environment –What do teachers and students need to know about virtual education before jumping in?
 * How to be Savvy Consumers –What questions do you need to ask, what do you need to be wary of, how do you navigate the marketplace?
 * //Common Concerns Teachers Have - pending approval from Liz//

12:15 Lunch will be provided

**Digital Learning Immersion**
The afternoon will be spent being engaged in viewing current uses of CMS platforms while also taking part in a designed challenge based learning activity using 21st Century Tools and Resources.

Learning Management Systems (LMS), Course Management System (CMS), no matter the name these tools are powerful and will allow schools to blend brick and mortar with virtual learning.

1:30 - 2:00 [|Karl Schaefer] of Durham Academy will present an overview of [|Moodle] with examples of how we instituted Moodle at Durham Academy. Live class examples will be showed along with what we consider to be best practices by teachers. Strengths and weaknesses of using Moodle as compared to a proprietary LMS. Our Moodle admin person will discuss hardware and setup. Participants will be able to log in and play around in a Sandbox course.
 * 1:00 - 1:30** **General Panel Discussion** - The Big Picture Designing the 21st Century High School http://newali.apple.com/acot2/principles/
 * Effects of an LMS
 * Will teachers be replaced?
 * Will students learn the same values they would from in class sessions?
 * Will it be a standalone system to teach an online course or blended with traditional classroom learning to enhance the experience for students and teachers?
 * Lessons Learned for Implementation
 * Consistency of course design - develop best practices so courses are similar to students
 * Where to begin - start with a cohort of teachers who are strong teachers in their subject area
 * Time and guided practice is important - Durham Academy has done 4 day workshops and day long retreats to get started

2:00 - 2:30 Melissa Tredenick of [|Christ School], will present an overview of [|Blackboard] with examples of how we instituted Blackboard at Christ School. Some teachers choose only to post the minimum amount of content that is required, while some have exceeded the expectations. Discuss how to use Blackboard as tool to enhance traditional classroom learning, and how Blackboard can stand alone for an online course. Including brief discussion of why we chose Blackboard as opposed to an open source LMS.

2:30 - 2:45 Question and Answer session for any lingering questions

2:45 - 3:35 [|Ernie Cox] of [|St. Timothy's School] will offer a session on Collaborative Learning. What technology tools can foster collaborative student and teacher engagement while also addressing budgetary and infrastructure issues? This session will offer participants a look at tools which address these questions including: [|Google Education Edition], [|NoodleTools], [|PBwiki Academic], and more. Attendees will return to their schools prepared to advocate for greater access to these resources and an understanding of how these tools support collaborative learning objectives.

3:45 Wrap-Up, Evaluations, and Adjourn

Other Learning Management Systems: Studywiz Spark http://www.studywizspark.com/
 * Proprietary Systems**:

Angel Learning http://www.angellearning.com/

Sakai Project http://www.sakaiproject.org/
 * Open Source Systems:**

Drupal http://drupal.org/

[|SchoolComputing Wiki] List of Course Management Systems

[|Edutools Comparison] of Course Management Systems

[|Virtual School Symposium 2009]
 * Other Information**