Another that starts in 1st grade for this district is SpellingCity.com, where they not only have assigned work, but are encouraged to go out on their own and try creating their own lists of words. Again, the kids love it.
All of this is aside from any project work they do in school, some of which pertains to online software such as Prezi and Glogster. Blended learning, indeed! On the above-mentioned site, the authors predict that by next year, 50% of secondary school students will have taken a class online, and that by 2019, 50% of their learning will BE online.
I don't know about you, but I think it is happening faster than that. What do you think? Fan or foe?
Given that we are 21st century educators, it only seems to make sense that we would take advantage of our access to the Internet and Web 2.0 applications. This can only seek to enhance learning! I checked out the first website you linked to on Blended Learning, and found the explanations to be very helpful. Differentiation is the name of the game, so I would imagine that the additional sites you listed provide exercises that are well suited for students of varied skill levels. I'd also presume that these exercises serve as a meaningful formative measure for teachers, who likely have capabilities to access students' accounts and monitor progress. Thanks for sharing, Brian!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post Brian! I was just looking at a post about vocabulary sites but in exploring them I found that they were mostly geared to secondary students. I haven't found many elementary vocabulary sites and Spellingcity.com looks great! I am looking forward to sharing this with my colleagues. Do you kids have access to the premium activities? What are they like?
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