Book Spotlight: Power Up Blended Learning

Digital learning coaching has been weighing heavily on my mind.   I don't think it is controversial to say that last spring has taught all educators the importance of blended learning, so whether it's help in integrating the tools or the actual best practice pedagogy, digital learning coaches are more important than ever for schools and districts.  Kentucky's Digital Learning Coaches had their first official conference last month (virtual of course).  Thanks to Laura Raganas's organization, last school year was the launch of a new cohort opportunity for us to meet and learn, both in person and via our hashtag #KYDLC.   Under the generous sponsorship of KET Education, conference attendees received a fantastic package:

Got my goodie box for the upcoming #KYDLC virtual conference! Special thanks to @EducationKET. P.S. @brian_spellman, appreciate the "Seven" movie reference. #KyGoDigital pic.twitter.com/3LiSVaq57y

— Adam Watson (@watsonedtech) June 10, 2020

One of the books in the box, and the first I grabbed to read cover to cover, was Catlin R. Tucker's Power Up Blended Learning: A Professional Learning Infrastructure to Support Sustainable Change.   (Tucker also provided a virtual keynote address for our KYDLC conference.) The "sustainable change" part of the subtitle was something that particularly struck me, because that is the hardest part to achieve.  Even if you prioritize the budget to get 1:1 student devices, the act of transforming teaching with technology is a legacy mindset that cannot be accomplished in a "one and done" summer PD.  In a bigger sense, the book is an excellent guide for a person still needing to grow in the role of a  digital learning coach (or in the parlance of Tucker, a "blended learning coach"), and I include myself in that category!

Here are some of my personal key takeaways and highlights from Tucker's book:

• Start with the Why.  Tucker actually refers to Simon Sinek and his "Golden Circle" here, but her connection to integrating tech for lasting change is important: "If leaders are clear about their why, teachers are more likely to buy in and take risks" (3, author's italics). The why should then drive your how (how do you accomplish your why?) and ultimately your what (what do you produce?).   I have been guilty teaching tech from the opposite direction in the past: I started with the what a tool did, then how to use it, and if I was lucky, glossed over why using the tool mattered in the first place.  This might work for a perfunctory one day PD, but it is not effective for lasting, sustainable tech integration that should parallel your school or district's pedagogical beliefs.  To paraphrase Sinek, if the digital tool does not meet "an organization's purpose," one should reconsider using it.  Why does your district or school's beliefs need blended learning in the first place?  Answer that, and the right tools and digital platforms should naturally follow.
• Explain It, See It, Discuss It, Try It.  While Tucker details this as a "simple approach to professional learning" (36), I would argue that what seems simple and obvious is not always what is followed by PD facilitators.  "Explaining it" starts, unsurprisingly, with why a teacher would want to use a specific strategy or tool in the first place. Next, you need to model its usage in order to make the abstract into the concrete.  Teachers (like all learners) then must talk about it in order to reflect how the tool or strategy can apply to their own classrooms, changing their pre-lesson/PD schema by making meaningful, relevant connections.  Lastly, knowledge without application is an empty exercise: teachers need to try the tool/strategy out on their own.  This might occur live at the end of the PD (for example, making their own Screencastify video after learning about the tool), but ideally, it would be later with actual students in an actual lesson when a coach or colleagues could observe and/or analyze data, then give feedback.
• Effective coaching for blended learning must be individualized, intensive, sustained, context-specific, and focused.  Tucker goes into excellent detail on each of these points (45-47), but in particular, I want to highlight how she acknowledges that a "kickoff" PD in a whole-group setting is pragmatically a likely beginning of the coaching process.  It is what happens after the kickoff that makes the difference: "The blended learning coach must take the spark created in the whole group training or all-staff professional development day and keep it alive with individualized, intensive, context-specific, and focused professional learning" (47, my italics).  You need a spark to light a campfire, but you need constant kindling and tending to the flame to keep it going.  No matter how charismatic or inspiring the summer PD facilitator might be, it takes a "boots on the ground" approach with coaching staff over the months and years to make the professional learning meaningful and long-lasting.
• Coaching must be a partnership.  Tucker highlights Jim Knight's "seven partnership principles":   equality, choice, voice, reflection, dialogue, praxis (application), and reciprocity (coaches must be willing to learn too!) (68-69).   I have to say that I have likely underestimated some of the dialogue necessary for good coaching relationships, especially at the beginning of coaching cycles.  Tucker does a great job of detailing the "power of dialogic interviews" and even provides a useful download template for the process (58-59).
• When a coach is showcasing a blended learning model, consider your learning purpose.  A blended learning coach may be asked, for the sake of a whole group or on a one-on-one basis, to create a lesson that highlights a blended learning model (station rotation, flipped, etc.).   However, Tucker offers some simple but very illuminating questions that coaches should ask themselves (111):
• Can I highlight a slightly different approach that will push teachers to expand their approach?
• Can I use technology to foster collaboration and get kids working together?
• Do my activities feel like work or play? (This might be my favorite!)
• Will kids be excited to engage with the concepts and with each other?
• Virtual coaching will work differently than in-person coaching.  While this may seem obvious, I welcome that Tucker offers her entire Chapter 11 to address this issue.  Considering the uncertainty that awaits us in the upcoming school year, this chapter alone makes the book invaluable!

As I close out my entry on powering up blended learning professional development, I should mention that Monica Wainscott (Beechwood Independent), Stella Pollard (Franklin County) and myself shared some perspective and resources about what student choice and personalization can look like in a post-NTI world at a recent virtual KyGoDigital conference.  (At Shelby and in many districts across the state, we are emphasizing that thanks to planning and reflection time, the fall's blended learning opportunities for students should look different than the "emergency" distance learning educators had to manage last spring.)  As Digital Learning Coaches/Coordinators, we were happy to showcase our roles in helping our districts in the educational frontier ahead of us.  Our half hour session is just after the Day 2 keynote (about 1 hour 6 minutes in), and our Slides are available here: