Blended contextualized learning communities

Earlier this week, I had the chance to hear Chris Dede speak about blended contextualized learning communities (BCLC) at the Association for Teacher Educators conference in San Antonio. His talk described one of his current projects to create a BCLC with among middle schoolers studying ecosystems around Cambridge. Some essential definitions for BCLCs:

Blended-- This term is being increasingly used to describe classrooms in which technology is deeply and permanently embedded. In these classrooms, technology is a natural part of what happens and many of the activities would be impossible without the technology. Blended classrooms are different from classrooms in which technology has been "integrated." Where technology has been  integrated it is part of the instruction-- the curriculum is developed prior to the decision to use technology and then technology tools are selected to support instruction. Where technology is blended, it is a part of the curriculum as well as part of the instruction.

Contextualized-- Much curriculum in the 20th century was designed to simplify problems. Educators focused on only the simple aspects of the ideas in the curriculum. Even when based on real-world problems, curriculum was sterilized as complicating factors were removed as the problems went from the professions into the classroom. While this was done in an effort to reduce the complexity of the problems and make learning easier, cognitive and learning scientists have found that those complicating factors help learners connect with the problems and help learners to find relevance, and without either of those, learning does not occur.

Learning communities-- For several decades, educators have been rediscovering the social nature of learning and designing instruction to encourage interaction among learners and between learner and teacher.