Friday, July 25, 2014
Flipped Classrooms
After taking EDUC 422 my eyes have been opened to the possibilities of the use of technology in the modern classroom. The Flipped Classroom is another use of technology in the 21st century classroom. After retiring from the military I began to prepare for my next career in teaching. This time around I am more focused and determined to actually learn in my classes as opposed to my first attempt at education 40 years ago at UCLA. If I missed a class at UCLA, and I often did, I relied on classmate’s notes and text books to get me through with a “passing grade”. This time if I happen to miss a class, which happens rarely, there is a plethora of information online line or posted to a classroom website to get me caught up. One of the greatest tools that I have found is Kahn Academy. I lost track of the times I have watch the Kahn Academy tutoring video of electron orbitals in Chemistry until I finally “got it”. The same was true with Calculus, Biology, Accounting, and the list goes on and on. With flipped classes the teacher develops a quality lesson once, with online resources such as video, images, teaching websites etc., while the student can view it several times and learn at their own pace. The next class period the student is excited about what they have learned so far, and eager to share and/or discuss their new insights. The teacher, freed up from having to develop and present a lecture, has the ability to supervise and augment student discussions or activities. Although the teacher has a high work load to develop the lessons, after they are finished they can be refined and used for years to come. As a future teacher I plan on using the flipped classroom regularly but not exclusively.
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I agree with you that the flipped classroom idea can be beneficial to the teacher who only has to create a quality lesson once and share it with multiple classes and possibly in future years. I think we may underestimate how much work it takes to create quality lessons online. I also think there is a danger in following this model regularly because it can set up our students to fail. If the teacher leaves it up to the student to watch lessons online, I think often the students will not watch the lessons and will come to class unprepared. I think the idea puts too much trust that students will spend the time to view the lessons online which I have no reason to believe that all or even most will.
ReplyDeleteRick I think the one thing that is keeping me from being completely on board with the flipped classroom the fact that not all students have the same access to the internet. otherwise, I agree with you about having the teacher freed up from the front of the class lecturing and actually being able to get into it with the students. It boils down to more one on one time with the students that aren't getting it. Having discussions in class is a great way for some community learning to take place as well. I agree with your comment about the model being a lot of invested work to create the lesson online. I'm thinking about maybe accumulating lessons slowly throughout my career and seeing how they work in the classroom for me.
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