Foundations of blended learning

In my experience the ability to blend online and traditional classroom can be a big help to students who march to the beat of a different drummer, be they students with attention issues, hyperactivity issues, bipolar issues, and behavior issues. Many of these students can function in a classroom on a limited basis, but at times need to be able to be by themselves and still be able to progress in the class. A class that has an parallel online component fits this need well.  Allowing students who can be a distraction and/or detriment in a busy classroom environment the ability to get away from the environment in either time or space and still make progress so they can rejoin the class when they are ready. Attention issues students can break the class down into smaller chunks, bipolar students can put off the work until they are in a mood to do the work, Behavior issues students can be removed and still have the ability to progress in the class. A pure online class can be used to teach home bound students. I have seen this used many times in my experience in alternative brick and mortar schools.
 In science classes the largest barriers is the issue of labs. Labs in a traditional class room can be a big plus to student understanding, often being a great way to differentiate the lessons to fit all students. This can be replaced with some of the online tools such as gizmo labs, I would like to be able to send a kit home so students can do hands on labs there. I am developing great online classes for the night and online school now, but I often think a lab could be a quicker easier way to get content to students.