UPDATE: OCt. 23rd - RobotsLAB BOX is the winner of the "Game Changer" Award
Most of us are aware that blended learning means integrating face-to-face classroom instruction with online learning.
The benefits of blended learning are many, including allowing greater leeway for students to work at their own pace and take a lot more courses than they might otherwise have had access to at their own local schools. Think of it as an educational leveler.
But as Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia and president of the Alliance for Excellent Education opined at a recent panel discussion, "Blended learning is not using technology to diminish the role of teaching, it enhances the role of teaching."
Teachers searching for innovative ways to interest kids in STEM learning should watch this video of high schoolers in Austin, Texas, producing their own robot fashion show at a local Barnes and Noble. That’s right! A robot fashion show complete with a runway and the latest fashions for well-dressed robots!
The students are from the award-winning robotics clubs of Anderson High School and Eastside Memorial. High School presented five ‘NAO’ humanoid robots developed by Aldebaran Robotics of Paris, France; they programed them with five distinct personalities, taught them to move like little models, and sent them down the runway strutting their stuff and dressed to the nines!
An overwhelming majority of teachers (86%) and administrators (93%) think it's "important" or "absolutely essential" to use products (such as apps, computer games, websites, digital planning tools, or digitally delivered curricula) designed to help students or teachers.
Almost all teachers (between 87% and 96%) agree the use of educational technologies increases student engagement in learning, enables personalized learning, improves student outcomes, and helps students collaborate.
And 9 out of 10 teachers agree they would like to use more edtech in the classroom.