What is BlenderLearn and How Does It Work?

BlenderLearn is a comprehensive Teaching and Learning Management System designed to help

educators solve the pressing challenges facing modern schools—obstacles such as gaps in achievement, student mental health and behavior challenges, poor attendance, school safety, lack of career and college counseling, and equity issues. Schools can use all of Blender, or just part of its capabilities, to fit a school’s exact needs. But how, exactly, does it work?

First, it all starts with a robust Individual Learner Profile. BlenderLearn creates a continually updating picture of each student. The Profile is accessed through a Dashboard, and is populated by current Student and District Goals, appropriate data and information about the student, including information gathered in surveys, counselor observations, test results, and more. This gives you a "360-degree" view of the student. The profile provides the parameters to feed Continuing Education and Certification Plans. A Digital Portfolio allows each Student to collect and share the evidence of individual success. The Profile promotes Student Agency by giving each Student the tools to manage their own education plan. We can also provide access to Parents. Our Profile application was funded by a Gates Foundation Grant and is at the heart of Blender’s personalized teaching and learning support. 

Second, by tracking the objectives and goals of a Student’s individual education plan, the Blender Content Management System (CMS) then helps the Teacher and Student manage all the work-related courses and instructional content organized and tagged in the CMS. This provides for the appropriate linkage from Student, to Teacher, to Counselor, and ultimately to Content. If a District chooses, parents can view all their children's content through a customized Parent view. Palm Beach County uses this system to organize and manage the content every Teacher needs. Given the current confusion around vetting content, Palm Beach protects its Teachers from any controversy!

Third, if a course is to be taken Virtually by the Student, then Blender’s Learning Management System (LMS) can be the delivery system for assignments, courses, and so on. If a class is being conducted on site, the LMS can support the class and be used for projects, homework and enrichment. Results are tracked, and connected to the Learner Profile so that the continuous progress of the Student can be monitored and managed. Many school districts have already selected and use an LMS. BlenderLearn can easily integrate into that legacy system! 

Fourth, because teaching and learning is a collaborative venture, Blender Communities are used to bring all the participants together. Students, Teachers, Parents, and Counselors all have a role and Communities provide a workspace so that they can work together in easily configured groups. Communities connect to Content, Courses, and a set of collaboration tools.