Should You Flip Your Classroom?

A Lecture By Any Other Name... I started hearing buzz about the flipped classroom via Twitter a few weeks ago and wondered what this new educational practice was all about. When I read a few sources, my first thought was this scene from The Wire about the Barksdale crew rebranding their drug supply to bring back customers because it had turned into a bad product. (*Clip contains strong language) Flipping the classroom is a buzzword with little substance because it rearranges the same bad product: the lecture. In theory, the model is promising in that the activities in a classroom are dedicated to student inquiry instead of passive reception of information. Why is a didactic lecture necessary before engaging in classroom inquiry? Flipping the classroom by having students learn a concept at home does not address scaffolded teaching. Without instruction about the text itself, "flipping" also reifies the epistemology of “text as truth”. The biggest affront may be the videos themselves.

Flipped Classroom: Beyond the Videos Last week, I read an interesting blog post by Shelley Blake-Plock titled “The Problem with TED ed.” It got me thinking about the flipped classroom model and how it is being defined. As a blended learning enthusiast, I have played with the flipped classroom model, seen presentations by inspiring educators who flip their classrooms, and even have a chapter dedicated to this topic in my book. However, I am disheartened to hear so many people describe the flipped classroom as a model where teachers must record videos or podcasts for students to view at home. There are many teachers who do not want to record videos either because they don’t have the necessary skills or equipment, their classes don’t include a lot of lecture that can be captured in recordings, or they are camera shy. Too often the conversation surrounding the flipped classroom focuses on the videos- creating them, hosting them, and assessing student understanding of the content via simple questions or summary assignments. 1. 2.

The 50 Best Blogs for Future Teachers The Modern Definition Of College Readiness 3.54K Views 0 Likes The modern definition of learning, school, and college is an evolving mix of education and technology jargon. Five Best Practices for the Flipped Classroom Ok, I'll be honest. I get very nervous when I hear education reformists and politicians tout how "incredible" the flipped-classroom model, or how it will "solve" many of the problems of education. It doesn't solve anything. It is a great first step in reframing the role of the teacher in the classroom. It fosters the "guide on the side" mentality and role, rather than that of the "sage of the stage." It helps move a classroom culture towards student construction of knowledge rather than the teacher having to tell the knowledge to students. It also creates the opportunity for differentiated roles to meet the needs of students through a variety of instructional activities. 1) Need to Know How are you creating a need to know the content that is recorded? 2) Engaging Models One of the best way to create the "need to know" is to use a pedagogical model that demands this. 3) Technology What technology do you have to support the flipped classroom? 4) Reflection 5) Time and Place

The Flipped Classroom Model: A Full Picture Due to Khan Academy’s popularity, the idea of the flipped classroom has gained press and credibility within education circles. Briefly, the Flipped Classroom as described by Jonathan Martin is: Flip your instruction so that students watch and listen to your lectures… for homework, and then use your precious class-time for what previously, often, was done in homework: tackling difficult problems, working in groups, researching, collaborating, crafting and creating. Classrooms become laboratories or studios, and yet content delivery is preserved. A compiled resource page of the Flipped Classroom (with videos and links) can be found at The advantage of the flipped classroom is that the content, often the theoretical/lecture-based component of the lesson, becomes more easily accessed and controlled by the learner. It is important, though, not to be seduced by the messenger. The Flipped Classroom Model Experiential Engagement: The Activity Summary

Five-Minute Film Festival: Flipped Classrooms I really enjoyed Mary Beth Hertz's excellent blog published earlier this week, "The Flipped Classroom: Pro and Con" -- one of the most concise and balanced views I've read on the buzz-wordy concept of flipping the classroom. Advocates say that "flipped classrooms" help overburdened teachers differentiate their instruction to reach more learners, provide an avenue into more hands-on and student-driven learning during classtime, and shift the teacher's role from "sage on the stage" to learning coach and facilitator. Critics say it's just a fad, relies too heavily on rote instruction, and doesn't go far enough in making the needed changes for teaching and learning reform. Video Playlist: Flipping the Classroom Keep watching the player below to see the entire playlist, or view this playlist on YouTube. More Flipped Class Resources Of course, there are thousands more videos on the subject. Flipping the Classroom Guides and PD Articles and Press on Flipping the Classroom see more see less

Xerte - Open Source E-Learning Developer Tools Welcome to The Xerte Project! The Xerte Project is an initiative to provide high quality free software to educators all over the world, and to build a global community of users and developers around our tools. The project began in 2004 at the University of Nottingham, when work began to create a Flash-based runtime engine that would help the in-house multimedia development team speed up the development of interactive learning materials, and provide a platform for re-using good solutions to common problems that developers were typically solving every time they began a new project. To begin with, the tools were aimed at technical users: essentially the engine provided a library of useful classes that developers could access by writing XML to structure content, and writing code to develop interactivity. We began to discover that many of our users, attracted by the software's features, were struggling with some of the more technical aspects of developing content. Core Values Downloads

Building Your Own Textbook Textbooks are a multi-billion dollar industry -- an estimated $3.5 billion for the K-12 market alone. But the growing availability of digital content and open educational resources (OER) is giving schools the opportunity to bypass some of the traditional expenses of textbook purchasing. It's also giving teachers the opportunities to build their own textbooks. No doubt the move from print to digital content is shaking up the entire publishing industry. But the opportunity to shake up and rethink textbooks seems particularly profound. When you digitize other types of books -- novels, for example -- you (probably) want to retain the layout and the chronology of the original print version. You can also include in a digital textbook (or "course packet" or whatever we'd call this new collection of materials) just those resources that students are actually assigned to work through. Considering the Source

10 Tools to Help you Flip Your Classroom Two years ago I "flipped" my high school Anatomy & Physiology class. Read my previous post for the full story. I learned by trial and error. I have also found some very helpful resources that I would like to share with you. 1. : The leading screen casting software title on the market. Easily zoom, pan, and create call-outs on your screen captures. Accepts multiple audio and video tracks. 2. : from the makers of Camtasia ( TechSmith ), this screen capture tool allows you to quickly capture a still image of all or part of your screen. 3. : You will be creating lots of presentations and handouts in your flipped classroom. 4. : After creating your recorded lectures and hand-outs, you will want somewhere to post them sot that your students can access them. The commercial version of wikispaces includes advertising. 5. : The internet has enabled like-minded people, scattered across the globe, quick and easy access to each other. Jing is not as full-featured as Camtasia or Snagit.

10 TED Talks That Could Be Used As Course Titles I was perusing my morning Twitter stream and came across a few friends discussing the current state of course titles. Long story short, most are still stuck in the dark ages. Biology 101? World History 1812-Present? These titles may seem like they’re accurate and fit but… they’re boring. In this day and age of short attention spans, flipping of classrooms, and rethinking of education… it’s time to rethink course titles. In an effort to give school administrators and teachers a guidepost with which they can rethink current course titles (what better time than in July, right?) In other words, make the course titles sexier, the descriptions more attractive, and get students excited to attend a class before they even step foot in the classroom for the first time. So, without further ado, here are potential course titles that are actual TED talks / TED categories. Inventions That Shape History (Could be a course on world history or even engineering / physics.) The Way We Think How Things Work

Free and Open Source Authoring Tools for e-Learning As an e-Learning consultant I was always a fan of open source software. Why? The answer is simple. Because I could use them as I wish, for whatever I wish, without long-term commitments and with the extra bonus of a community of professionals that use, extend and support them. In this post I am not going to talk about open source learning management systems such as eFront[1] but rather dedicated open source “authoring tools”. => If you know a free or open source authoring tool that is not included in the list I will highly appreciate if you write a comment with a link! Free & Open Source Authoring Tools for e-Learning What2Learn makes it easy for e-Learning developers to create interactive games and quizzes and track learners’ attainment. xical.org ClassTools.net Create free educational games, quizzes, activities and diagrams in seconds! eXe Wink CourseLab Quandary An application for creating Web-based Action Mazes. Hot Potatoes

Flipping the Classroom 4/27/2012 By: Teachers from around the world have adopted the flipped classroom model and are using it to teach a variety of courses to students of all ages. In the excerpt below from the book, Flip Your Classroom (©2012, ISTE® International Society for Technology in Education and ASCD), authors Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams outline reasons why educators should consider this model. Flipping speaks the language of today’s students. Flipping helps busy students. Flipping helps struggling students. Flipping helps students of all abilities to excel. Flipping allows students to pause and rewind their teacher. Flipping increases student–teacher interaction. Flipping changes classroom management. Flipping educates parents. Flipping makes your class transparent. Flipping is a great technique for absent teachers. Flipping can lead to the flipped-mastery program. VIDEO TIP: MAKING A ONE-TAKE VIDEO By Michael Gorman Assign the Groups In the spirit of PBL, students should be divided into groups.

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