BCLC-- continued

Earlier I mentioned blended contextualized learning communities (BCLC) as a model of 21st century curriculum and instruction that Chris Dede introduced at the Association of Teacher Educators annual conference earlier in the month. Dede suggested there are four components of a BCLC:

1) Virtual environments-- In the example Dede shared, the resources of Harvard have been used to create ponds and forests students can visit in a Second-Life-like environment. Even without access to such resources, middle school teachers can find virtual stores to run, virtual experiments to manipulate, and similar environments that cannot be be accessed in an in-person classroom but that can be accessed via virtual environments.

2) Social media-- The interaction available via social media is valued by the digital generations and they find it natural to interact via those networks. By using these networks, we are connecting our classrooms with their everyday experiences.

3) Mobile augmented reality-- Again, Dede used a specific example of mobile augmented reality to illustrate his point (and the example was impressive having come from Harvard), but mobile devices are allowing students and teachers to take their lessons and their cloud into the field. When students on art field trips in our school post their thoughts on what they see to blogs during the trip (we associate their phones with a blog on our site), we are approaching mobile augmented reality. When those students use their phones to view the resources connected with QR codes, they are also approaching mobile augmented reality.

4) Performance assessments-- Dede maked the point that students who experience BCLC perform as well as students in traditional classrooms on "tests measuring recall of information," but that students who experience the BCLC also develop richer thinking and problem-solving skills. The difficulty that he and his colleagues recognize and are working to address is defining those skill and then measuring them with validity and reliability.