Blendspace : New Era Classroom

What Is Blendspace? 

As I work on integrating more technology into my classroom, I’ve focused on what I thought was an area that could use some improvement, and found that there was a disconnect occurring.I realized I needed a better way to communicate and collaborate with my students and for them to access help when they needed it and the resources that would help them to be successful. And we were having a positive impact on my classroom, which came in the form of solving problems of lost papers, forgotten assignments, and missed learning opportunities due to class absences.  I began searching for another way to make some improvements and found a tool called Blendspace.

You can use a free TES Teach with Blendspace account to create linear lessons to guide students through basic content. For instance, a language teacher could share a lesson about poem and short story and upload links, images and videos, text, and short quizzes to help build student knowledge. Have students design their own grids to review for a test, curate resources for a passion project, or create presentations to share with their peers. Then mix up the delivery by creating a virtual gallery walk with links to students' projects, giving them an opportunity to provide feedback to their peers via the discussion tool. Looking to differentiate? Create a row of videos, a row of text, and a row of links to interactive tools, and let kids learn according to their preferred option. Alternatively, you can require kids to choose one from each row in order to gain perspective in a variety of ways. 

Take advantage of the vast library of resources, including free and paid teacher-created lessons to share with your students (user ratings for different resources are helpful when deciding which content to include). Take the time to add a variety of resources to keep students on track and engaged as they move through the lesson. You can add directions and encourage discussion with the sidebar chat, too; just be sure to monitor student responses for relevance and appropriateness.

Holding students accountable for learning is a bit tricky. Other than the discussion tool, it's tough to know whether or not students are engaging with the resources; students who struggle to learn independently will likely need additional support as they move through the lessons. You'll want to create opportunities for assessment along the way to ensure that students are grasping the material. Blendspace can be a great addition to the classroom, but it doesn't replace instruction.

Ways To Use Blendspace In The Classroom

1. Flip Your Classroom

I like Blendspace because it really does provide a variety of benefits to me both personally and professionally.  It can be used as a way to flip the classroom and to save that vital classroom time for student interactions, engaging activities, or having students work independently while teachers facilitate their activities and provide feedback one-on-one.

Blendspace can be used to create a lesson using the TES Resources tab, then shared with students through their class account or through a direct link. Regardless of how the lesson is shared, students have access to many resources and can learn asynchronously outside of the classroom, on their own schedule, using whatever device they choose.

This means that, in ideal circumstances, learning can take place anywhere at any time. The choice is the students’ and that’s the great thing about technology and the usefulness of tools like Blendspace. It can also be used to store favorite web tools, presentations, or one’s personal work. It makes it easier to share ideas with colleagues, and organized teaching and learning materials with students.

2. Present Student Work In Class

Blendspace is a way to avoid fumbling with flash drives, losing valuable class time opening emails and attachments.  All of the student projects can be added by their URL or uploaded into one lesson, given it a title, and in class, only one lesson has to be opened to display the student work for the class to enjoy.

3. Build A Lesson

Building a lesson for any level or discipline is easy with Blendspace. Simply choose your topic and by using the TES Resource tools provided such as Google Search, Educreations, Google Drive, Dropbox, uploads from your computer, and more, you can quickly build a lesson.  All it takes is finding the resource and dragging it into place in your lesson.

You can add boxes, move items around, and no matter what you do it is done quickly. It really is a great way to share information, keep track of projects, and so much more. These are just some of the reasons why I am really happy that I found Blendspace and how its use has benefited my classroom. I recommend checking it out if you have not, and letting me know in the comments below what your experience was!

Here is a picture and a video of me using Blendspace in my class to give a lesson, quiz etc :

Quiz session.

Time for holiday, but first, let me give all my students a lot of homework:)