Guest Commentary: Education Next Article Looks at Blending Face-to-Face and Online Learning

In the Summer issue of Education Next, Jonathan Schorr and Deborah McGriff look at the blended learning movement and its impact on the future of education.
The writers start with Rocketship Education, a network of K-5 charter schools based in California's Silicon Valley. Located in predominately working class and minority neighborhoods, Rocketship academies use a blended learning model of education. The schools are based on the premised that every child deserves an excellent education, that every child can attend a four-year college, and that the path to college starts in kindergarten."
Schorr and McGriff found that "online work is essential to the long-term vision for the school’s instructional model—and for Rocketship’s growth trajectory."
The writers also discovered that "the larger impact of the technology is still ahead, in the ways it will integrate with, and alter, classroom practice. Rocketship is building a model in which kids learn much of their basic skills via adaptive technology ... software, leaving classroom teachers free to focus on critical-thinking instruction and extra help where kids are struggling. Likewise, teachers will be able to “prescribe” online attention to specific skills."
Click here to read about the future of learning and what it looks like in the Silicon Valley, San Diego, and Denver.