Our Lady of the Lake Catholic School is a blended learning school. Blended learning combines online delivery of educational content with the best features of classroom interaction and live instruction. This model personalizes learning to allow thoughtful reflection, and differentiate instruction across a diverse group of learners. Students have the opportunity to learn at their just-right learning level through the use of blended learning and innovative technology.
Blended learning is not the same as technology-rich instruction. It goes beyond one-to-one computers and high-tech gadgets. Blended learning involves leveraging technology to afford each student a more personalized learning experience. This means increased student control over the time, place, path and/or pace of his or her learning. When technology and teaching inform each other, educational content becomes dynamic, reaching students of varying learning styles. In other words, blended learning classrooms can reach and engage students in a truly customizable way.
English Language Arts classes at OLL use a station rotation model. In this model, students spend part of their class time in a small group with direct instruction from the teacher, part of their class time online with digital instruction and another part of their class time in a small group for a practicum or hands-on piece of their learning. Research shows that blended learning’s real strength is its ability to transform a largely transmissive method of teaching (for example, a teacher lecturing) into a truly interactive one, allowing for efficient individualized instruction. Students exposed to both face-to-face and online education are more successful than students entirely in one educational approach or the other.