ST.

PAUL UNIVERSITY SURIGAO

Surigao City, Philippines

GRADUATE SCHOOL

COURSE DESCRIPTION : PHD 301-EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND

MANAGEMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY
PROFESSOR : PORTIA ZOLETA-VITUG, PhD
STUDENT : GIRLIE JOI BAMBA C. SANICO

Book Review

Title of the Book: Go Blended

1. What ideas were new to you or an eye opener?

The whole idea that was discussed in the book were new to me; specifically the
blended learning. Blended learning has something to do with a program for education that
is connected to the use technology in which students learns through at least in part
through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path,
and/or pace; at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home;
 and the modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or subject are
connected to provide an integrated learning experience, this is according to Clayton
Christensen Institute as cited by Arney 2015. Moreover, it is actually interesting to note,
that the idea in the book is so helpful for 21 st century learners; it is timely and learners
will be motivated to learn if it will be applied in the education process.
It is discussed also in the book that blended learning and technology-enriched
learning is different. Schools that run digital tools are not necessarily blended learning
schools. Blended learning is a model that puts student learning at the center of it;
technology-enriched environments, digital software workstation, and 1:1
implementations all rely on technology for teaching and learning, but the actual model of
instruction used with the technology might be strikingly similar to a traditional teaching
model.
In this manner, approaches and strategies in education to achieve excellence to
learners are being introduced since the influence of technology is the new trend of
today’s generation. But in our case applying the use of technology in the teaching
learning process is so difficult in the sense that as a public secondary school of an island
municipality, computers, internet connections and other gadgets are not always available.
A lot of public school students have no computer at home and internet connection and so
applying the idea of blended learning is next to impossible in our current situation.

2. How and why did they make you think differently about 21st Century Education?

The book made me think that 21st century education is very much different from
what I have learned. Since my knowledge about 21 st century education is just a plain
application of power point when discussing topics to my students; or download and play
videos from YouTube to motivate learners. But when the book educates me about
applying new approaches in teaching to test the use of technology in education to
increase students’ achievement such as blended learning is a big revelation to me. The
book teaches me that there is another way for teachers, principals and other educators to
improve the learning process with the use of technology aside from the very common
one. They help me think that everything is possible with technology.
In blended learning, teachers are given opportunities and spaces to work with
small groups of students to address learning goals (individualization), enhance or extend
the curriculum (rigor), or spend time analyzing student data (monitoring). It will be offer
through differentiated experiences in both online and in-person contexts; blended
learning also allows teachers to further focus on individual students as learners and
access multiple data points to measure student growth. Additionally, blended learning
offers teachers and students opportunities to apply the International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE) standards for students and teachers, the standards for
learning, teaching and leading in the digital age (http://www.iste.org/STANDARDS) by
providing mechanisms and routine around which students can learn using technology
 tools (Arney, 2015). These new exploration of the use of technology is the reason why
21st century education is different from the current setting of teaching learning process in
mostly public schools of the Philippine.

3. Which points in the book were well substantiated, questionable or wrong? Be diligent at
times to examine the logical development?

The concern of the book is to spread ideas about other ways of applying
technology in teaching through blended learning; it is based on their own experiences
wherein they tried to practice it in their own school and found out a good result. The
author wanted to share the idea of blended learning throughout the world of education by
guiding educators through “Go Blended” book. They wanted other educators to take the
challenge of blended learning; and by that I cannot question them since it base on their
own experiences and there were testimonies’ given by different teachers in the book
proving the positive result of blended learning; as a matter of fact there were a lot of
positive reviews about the book from different administrators’ and teachers coming from
different school in the United State and so I think there were no substantiated,
questionable or wrong points in the book.
I can only give my own perspective in terms of using and applying blended
learning in our school. For me, it would be a questionable approach for teaching learning
since our school has a lot of problem in many resources. Although the book has well
explained the idea of blended learning and give guide to teachers, administrators and
other educators about how to use and apply bended learning; but in reality specially in
public school not all strategies that has been proven effective are applicable at all times
because in public school there are still a lot of problems financially.

4. In what way does the current book compare to the augments in other books that we are
reading or discussing in class?

Blended learning has been currently use by St. Paul University Surigao; it is the
first time that SPU Surigao try this kind of approach in teaching learning process;
although when I was in my Masters the use of technology has been introduce already,
some professors uses email add when asking requirements for a certain subject; the only
difference is that it was not formally introduce as blended learning. At this moment,
blended learning has been introduced already not just in the graduate school but also in
the undergraduate. Additionally, in educational leadership management for the 21 st
century our subject, blended learning was discussed as part of the 21 st century education;
it was revealed that blended learning can help enhance 21st century skills. Blended
learning is not a new concept, but its meaning has evolved with developments in
technology. Essentially, blended learning means a teacher harnesses different methods of
delivering information and instruction to students. In the past this has meant field trips,
 use of film strip projectors, tape recorders and overhead projectors to augment lectures
and textbook readings (http://www.onlinecultus.com/).

On the other hand, in the book “Go Blended”, the author organized its part into
three; part one explains the fundamental decisions leaders need to make in order to
initiate blended learning and lay the foundation for a focused and successful
implementation. The four chapter in part one explore the starting points for all leaders to
consider before embarking upon a blended learning initiative; instructional focus,
readiness, team building, and planning. Part two details the strategic decisions leaders
need to make to inform how blended learning will run. These five chapters articulate the
questions, concerns, and trade-offs leaders need to make when getting blended learning
into at the school level. Lastly, part three lays out on the ground steps leaders must take
to actually launch blended learning in classrooms and schools. These augments of
learning are different compare to the other books and discussions that we have in class
about blended learning, since this book is a practical guide to understanding the change
management process for school, district, and charter leaders who want to go blended, as
well as for classroom teachers going blended. It is totally a guide book of applying
blended learning in school.

5. What are the implications of this book on the instructional supervision in 21 st Century
Education? For improving current policies and practices of the institution that you are
connected?

The implications of this book on the instructional supervision in the 21st century
education are first, when blended learning will be used and introduced in schools it will
enhance students motivation to discover and learn with their own; as it was stated in the
book as one of the many testimonies that were included to testify how technology boost
achievements in schools. Second, there will be a fun learning between students because
each of them will be given different task that involves the use of technology. Computer
applications, tablets games or smart phones apps will be installed that are related to every
subject as avenue for learning, and by this way all learners will get involve because it is
unique and exciting. Students will be given enough time to accomplish task for a certain
subject since in blended learning task are given face to face and it will be submitted
through online learning. Teachers also can have time to prepare for her lessons and have
time to monitor learners for blended learning is organize into small groups of learners.

Additionally, in the blended learning model moves the teacher away from the
lecture podium into the arena of the students where the teacher becomes a facilitator
rather than a lecturer. With computer programs and websites distributing information, the
teacher is freed to move through the classroom and assist students individually. Planning
for a blended learning classroom is more labor-intensive than traditional lesson planning;
 teachers must gather and synthesize multiple sources for instruction, but the time spent in
planning allows the teacher to focus on students unique needs once they are gathered in
the classroom. In a flipped classroom, students may complete online lessons as
homework and use time in class to work on problems and projects with the teacher, and
classmates, readily available to provide assistance and advice. And in blended learning
classroom, students become proficient in the use of technology and learn how to locate
and evaluate the worth of information accessed on the Internet. Students are often
arranged in groups to tackle problems and projects, mimicking teamwork activities
required in the workplace. Because much of the learning is self-paced, students will gain
confidence in their ability to learn and gain insight into their own strengths and
weaknesses when confronted with a task. The blended learning classroom engages
students on a greater level than traditional classroom models. It employs a diversity of
methods to provide greater learning opportunities for the visual, kinesthetic, and auditory
learners. It gives students a sense of autonomy and self-efficacy as they proceed through
self-paced lessons, teaching them to take the initiative in problem solving and innovation.
These are life lessons that will benefit students, and society, well into the future.

However, when these positive effects will be injected to the current policies and
practices of our school, it will be a hard thing because a lot of teachers are very negative
to change; it will be a burden for them to learn the blended learning way of education.
This will only result to chaos for worse especially if resources are lacking.

6. Did the book introduce you to anything about which you want to learn more?

The book definitely introduces me to a lot of things in blended learning; things

that are very interesting. I literally love those personal testimonies of different teachers in
the book about some of their experiences in blended learning. I learn that before a
blended learning starts a teacher must take a professional development that includes
instructional professional development which is about small-group lesson planning and
instruction based on student achievement and develop systems for flexible grouping.
Then, teachers must take software training and followed by technology training and
resiliency support before running blended learning. It is stated in the book also, that
blended learning must not be a thing, but it should be part of the school culture, teachers
should not blame blended learning incase problems will arise. Blended learning is about
making systems work together.
 Aside from that, I am really interested with the guide given in the book about
choosing software because there are steps provided for teachers to follow. When it comes
to curriculum, I learn that in blended learning the curriculum focuses on a research-based
instructional design and demonstrable student outcomes in field testing and a system that
teaches and re-teaches using multiple pedagogical approaches. Some more interesting
things that are being introduced in blended learning are: a teacher will generate data
about student progress, and there are ways that the teachers can use the data to generate
from the online software and these are setting class goals: in which teachers create a class
growth goal for students based on their performance on the online software. These goals
in particular, are useful for building a culture of blended learning at the classroom level.
Next is setting individual goals: wherein teachers can set goals for individual students
that may motivate them to practice challenging standards. There is also informing
instruction: the teacher can decide to include additional practice in whole-class spiral
review sessions or in targeted small groups. Then, observing one-on-one, checking for
fidelity of implementation; wherein teachers need to look at data to determine how
effectively the program is being implemented on the school level. And lastly, verifying
and validating other data:

7. How does this book shed light on 21st Century Education issue you are concerned with?

The book “Go Blended” started at Aspire Public school in the United States; it
was the schools’ journey towards the shift of using blended learning that were reflected in
the book and some collected journey of other schools. The inspiration of the book is
being a healthy skeptic and eager learner. The school feels the need of 21 st century
learner and they take the risk and challenge to change the culture in teaching learning
process. According to the dictionary, the definition of skepticism is: an attitude of doubt
or the doctrine that true knowledge or knowledge in a particular area is uncertain.

Having an attitude of doubt is a good trait to have as a survivor. If something

doesn’t seem ‘right’ to you, your ‘doubt’ will make you question what’s going on. We
call the skepticism ‘healthy’ because even though you may be doubting something, once
you question things, you may discover different ‘truths’, allowing you to make better and
logical decisions. If your skepticism trait isn’t healthy, you could be entering ‘paranoia’.
That would be going a bit too far. Everyone should be a good skeptic. Never assume that
what you hear from ‘authority’ sources like the news media, big corporate, or the
government, is always true. Do your own further research, and then make a decision.
Don’t assume that you’re getting what you think you’re getting (Jorgustin, 2012). And
this is what happens to Aspire school, they practice the healthy skeptic attitude and in the
end they succeeded with the application of blended learning.
 The book creates a path that helps everyone to understand how a 21 st Century
education should be. It answers issues that could clear the questions of many educators in
answering the needs of 21st Century learners through blended learning and the guide
within the book; in my own concern with 21 st Century education some of my queries are
being answered with the book and its idea of blended learning. My concern particularly is
how I am going to shift my teaching to 21st Century education when my resources are
lacking and I have a lot of what if questions. But with the book my beliefs for 21 st century
education has been widen because of the shared experience with other educators and with
the tips that every teacher should be a healthy skeptic to discover and learn new ideas.

8. Who is the author?

The author of the book is Liz Arney, she is the director of innovative learning at
Aspire Public Schools; where she is crafting and running blended learning pilots in order
to identify the role of blended learning at Aspire and how best scale it. As a member of
Aspire’s Education Team, Liz works closely with teachers, principals, IT teammates, and
data analysis teammates to create supportive structures and processes for increasing
classroom technology offerings aligned with Aspire’s instructional program and culture.
Prior to her work on blended learning Liz worked at Aspire as a humanities instructional
coach, providing professional development, instructional and content support, and
induction coaching to grades 6-12 humanities teachers across the organization. She also
led the development of curriculum toolkits for English, social studies, science, and math
courses in grades 9-12. Before coming to Aspire, Liz taught high school English in public
and private schools in Boston, Seattle, and Taipei, Taiwan, and provided history content
coaching to teachers across New England. Liz holds a bachelor’s degree in English from
the University of California at Berkeley, a master’s degree in education from Harvard
University, and a master’s degree in humanities from the University of Chicago. We can
actually visit Liza through online at www.goblended.com.

9. What is his/her social, historical and cultural context?

The author is an active innovative learning director at Aspire Public Schools in

Oakland, California. She’s been in the field of education for a long time; before being
involve at Aspire; she has a lot of experiences in teaching English high school in a public
and private school from Boston, Seattle, Taipei and Taiwan. These experiences are her
avenue on understanding learner’s needs. But it was at the Aspire School that she
develops her craft in improving education. Aspire school they’re determined to avoid
getting stuck in ways or being afraid to try new things. They strive to never stop
searching, exploring, and questioning. Principals and teachers do a great job of keeping
that trait alive and well; one of the best parts of their “never satisfied” culture is it forces
them to push the envelope and continually improve the practice. Aspire culture demands
from their teachers and leaders both the freedom and responsibility to purposefully
question, argue, experiment, and try new things. For people who join their schools, they
 sometimes look for the “Aspire way”. The way they do things” sometimes takes on a
kind of mystical power until people realize the “Aspire way” involves a healthy, regular
dose of change and trying, always, to get better. Most people quickly realize there are
very few things other than their values and this culture that they strive to protect and hold
as consistent and sacred as possible. I believe these are just parts of the cultural context
from Aspire school that became the inspiration and the big influential factor of the
author.

10. Also from reading the text, what have you come to understand about the writer, as a
person?

Liz Arney is the original “healthy skeptic”. She keeps student learning at heart of
every judgment call and writes with spirit and candor about the choices she helped make
at Aspire. This no ‘silver bullet’ solution but instead a practical road map to using
technology to target instruction directly to student needs. Arney is exactly the guide you
should have at your side as you travel this new world of instruction; experienced,
thoughtful, and crisp her advice (Betsy Corcoran, CEO and Cofounder, EdSurge). Liz
Arney has done the hard work of taking her deep experience and making it practical and
useful to other school designers. Anyone launching or redesigning a school with blended
learning should incorporate the lessons of Go Blended (Stacey Childress, CEO,
NewSchools Venture Fund).

These are some of the positive reviews about the author Liz Arney; from their
statement and based on the culture of Aspire Schools I can say that the author is a true
educator by heart and soul. She has this vision of being the change master and has the
mission of propagating new ideas for other school to take risk and make a better change.
She also posses the optimistic beliefs because she and the rest at Aspire school has
always maintain the love for change and trying new things without any hesitation if they
will not succeed; what matter most to them is they have tried their best to test new ideas
for their betterment and for the learner also. And this is a good attitude that every
educators must possess to achieve excellence.

11. Lastly, that the book is known for making compelling arguments that have stood the test
of time or have been considered in their own time. Learn to craft strong writings by
carefully reviewing the readings, what makes this such a compelling arguments? The way
the argument is crafted, the evidence brought to bear, the writing style, the soul of the
author, the authority of the author.

Principals, teachers, and educators should not fear to try new approaches and
strategies when it comes to teaching. They should always posses the right attitude
towards change; especially today that there is a big challenge to every educator and that
is to cope up with 21st Century Education. In the current time, what you know 2 years or
5 years ago is obsolete already in the present time. Because of the changing time and new
discovery of technology, the way of teaching learning process changes also. It is listed in
the 21st century skills that a teacher must be innovative; it only means that teachers
should know how to discover and explore ideas that could help the teaching learning
process. This is the reason why Aspire school encourages their teachers to be the best
they can be, and by that their teachers develop a strategy that can benefit the learners as
well as the teachers because naturally teachers and staff are not afraid of trying new
things and ideas even though it will lead to fail them,; and one of their successful
experiment was blended learning.

Blended learning is more than just technology-enhanced education. It is a distinct

model of instruction, and one that is growing in importance. In the book “Go Blended” it
presents the lessons learned and best practices discovered result of one such success
story. Aspire public school is one of the highest performing public school systems in the
United States. Aspire Director of Innovative learning, Liz Arney, shares a framework for
getting started with the blended learning so that K-12 schools everywhere can begin their
journeys on sure footing. With blended learning, educators can achieve the necessary
enthusiasm by learning to plan, build teams, and make strategic decisions that will form
the foundation for success in implementing blended learning. By its nature, blended
learning involves technologies that will inevitably change and become outmoded by
newer advances. Truly blended schools need to be adaptable, so that teachers, staff, and
administrators can seamlessly deliver rigorous, individualized education, even as our
world continues to change.

On the other hand, although the guide of how to implement blended learning was
given in the book it is still hard for some public schools in the Philippines to follow the
steps and use it; why is it so? Because in our country aside from we differ from our
cultural practices that it may affect also, the big problem comes from how the public
schools sustain the program for blended learning when there are a lot of lacking
resources. There are a lot of things to consider before applying learning because it is
different in the Philippine setting. The idea of the learning process is so good; it can
motivate both teachers and students to do their best to learn. But then again, when
resources lacks and students have no computers and connection at home it will be very
difficult to apply blended learning.

However, teachers are suppose to posses the attitude of being innovative, by being
innovative means can discover any other ideas if not totally blended learning but another
means of learning that will answer the call for 21 st century education. A kind of strategies
that fits the learners needs in the 21st century without worrying about the lacking
resources in public school. On the first place, this is what the author in the book “Go
Blended” wants, that every educators must not fear to innovate new ideas, and explore
new things. Always posses the healthy skeptic attitude and be always positive to try new
approaches in teaching.
 Therefore this book is crafted to guide educators in building a kind of education
that can help the teachers to take the challenge of the new generation of learners who are
in the 21st Century Education. It is a guiding vehicle to educators to be motivated in
exploring and trying new ideas in adapting the new technology; the author of the book
also wanted her readers to be optimistic and innovative like her and other Aspire school
teachers; they never stop trying and learning until they succeeded, for it is the true
essence of education to continue to learn; Because according to Nelson Mandela,
Education is the only weapon to change the world.