Technology Integration or Blended Learning?

     Wow.  It has been so long since I have accessed my blog that I actually had to use the link provided in Canvas to find it.
     Anyway . . . I am a big fan of the SMARTBoard in my classroom.  I use it everyday in my teaching.  One of the things that I most enjoy, and that I find effective for my students, is the creation of screen capture videos of math problem examples.  When I teach a new concept and one or more of the students in the class has confusion about it, they can ask me to create a video.  All that is required of me is that I press a few buttons and work through another example problem.  The result is that I have a video that includes what I am writing on the board and my explanation, much like a Khan Academy video, but better because it is me and I am more fun than Sal Khan.
     I then take that video and upload it into a Google Drive folder that has been shared with the students.  The students are able to access the video when doing homework or studying for a test or exam.  It is also available for the parents in case they want to try to help the students with their homework.
     All of that is, of course, technology integration.  It is not blended learning in spite of the fact that I am posting the videos on-line.  One way for me to turn this exercise into blended learning would be to post the videos in a space where students can access them and then have discussions about the concepts or answer further questions that I would generate.
     That is one of the things that I will be looking into for the coming year.  I will be teaching an integrated math class that includes some students who really struggle with math.  I will be trying to get them out of the usual math class routine and get them to discuss the concepts with each other.  A blended approach will also get them to write about math more often.  Both discussion and writing will help them to understand the concepts better.