This year, I am going to flip my technology classes, which are Digital Literacy for grades six, seven, and eight, and an elective programming class for grades nine through twelve. I expect that flipping my classroom will make me a better teacher because I can observe more in class. And, there is no reason I can't do a "live" lesson if there is lots of confusion. I will become a better teacher not only through more careful observations, but also more one-on-one interactions, tracking questions, and having more time to think about the curriculum (see productivity below). The wiki for the class can he found here.
Productivity
The increase in productivity comes from the time saved by leverage video instruction. Let's take math to see an example of more efficiency. Let's say I teach basic math and every year I teach or review numeric representations and converting fractions to decimals and vice versa. Over time, my "presentation" will have evolved to address questions that were asked through the years. I feel good about making my "presentation" clearer for the students. I wonder, however, if it is good for me to explain the concept more more clearly to diffuse questions? So, I have given the same "presentation" about decimals and fractions about 100 times (number of classes times years taught). Let's assume that each class is one hour; this amounts to about 100 hours of time. Aside from the benefits of fine-tuning the "presentation" each year, that is a lot of time!
What if I had recorded the "presentation"? I could have recouped dozens of hours and used them to think more deeply about the concept, thought about opportunities for technology integration, and thought about the potential for interdisciplinary activities. The 100 hours doesn't seem like a good use of time. On top of that, what if I don't explain the concept well. I should be comparing my video to other videos on the concept from my school, other schools, and the Internet. My inventory of videos will be best-of-breed when it combines my own videos with the best of what other teachers have to offer. The bottom line is that videos free teachers from the more mundane instructional duties to focus on improving more critical aspects of their classroom (i.e., individualized curriculum, authentic tasks, project-based learning, etc.). Once all of the videos are created, the time "savings" could become substantial and advantageous to the learning environment.
PreparationProductivity
The increase in productivity comes from the time saved by leverage video instruction. Let's take math to see an example of more efficiency. Let's say I teach basic math and every year I teach or review numeric representations and converting fractions to decimals and vice versa. Over time, my "presentation" will have evolved to address questions that were asked through the years. I feel good about making my "presentation" clearer for the students. I wonder, however, if it is good for me to explain the concept more more clearly to diffuse questions? So, I have given the same "presentation" about decimals and fractions about 100 times (number of classes times years taught). Let's assume that each class is one hour; this amounts to about 100 hours of time. Aside from the benefits of fine-tuning the "presentation" each year, that is a lot of time!
What if I had recorded the "presentation"? I could have recouped dozens of hours and used them to think more deeply about the concept, thought about opportunities for technology integration, and thought about the potential for interdisciplinary activities. The 100 hours doesn't seem like a good use of time. On top of that, what if I don't explain the concept well. I should be comparing my video to other videos on the concept from my school, other schools, and the Internet. My inventory of videos will be best-of-breed when it combines my own videos with the best of what other teachers have to offer. The bottom line is that videos free teachers from the more mundane instructional duties to focus on improving more critical aspects of their classroom (i.e., individualized curriculum, authentic tasks, project-based learning, etc.). Once all of the videos are created, the time "savings" could become substantial and advantageous to the learning environment.
The preparation for flipping my classroom was substantial and would not have been possible during the school year. I created instructional videos for the Digital Literacy classes because of the age of the students and and the fact that we use our own technology literacy curriculum. It
is taught using a project-based curriculum and this year it will become a flipped classroom. An
example of a productive project-based classroom is art. The teacher models an artistic
technique and then students create their own artwork. From my observations, very
rarely does a student in art class ask, "what am I supposed to do?" or "how do I draw a horse?" They have the basic guidelines and motivation to forge ahead. Art is a low-risk environment, where students are not afraid to forge ahead for fear that they may be "doing it wrong". I am trying to create a similar environment. I grade projects, but mostly based on how much of the requirements students completed (i.e., work-based). When accuracy is important, some of the grade will be related to correctness. An example of this is using spreadsheets for calculations.
A flipped classroom makes the best use of class time by having students watch brief instructional videos at night for "homework". It creates an individualized learning environment at home and a challenging environment school. At home, students can take breaks while watching the video or watch it more than once. In class, students can choose from different projects based on a range of complexity. Over the course of the year, we will do many projects and I expect that students will have varying degrees of enthusiasm for a particular project. I give them a choice of three different levels of complexity on each project (bronze, silver, and gold in order of complexity). I believe that different levels of complexity will help motivate students who don't have internal motivation on a particular project. It also pushes students to accept higher levels of challenge in a low-risk environment (i.e., not worrying about the project grade). The gold projects are the most challenging and require the most work. Each one is graded according to its own merits, which means that students can get an "A" on any level of project. Which project level students choose is a matter of how much of a challenge they are willing to accept. In the first year, I am going to make each project level optional. Next year, I am thinking about requiring students to choose a few projects to choose gold or silver level requirements.
A flipped classroom makes the best use of class time by having students watch brief instructional videos at night for "homework". It creates an individualized learning environment at home and a challenging environment school. At home, students can take breaks while watching the video or watch it more than once. In class, students can choose from different projects based on a range of complexity. Over the course of the year, we will do many projects and I expect that students will have varying degrees of enthusiasm for a particular project. I give them a choice of three different levels of complexity on each project (bronze, silver, and gold in order of complexity). I believe that different levels of complexity will help motivate students who don't have internal motivation on a particular project. It also pushes students to accept higher levels of challenge in a low-risk environment (i.e., not worrying about the project grade). The gold projects are the most challenging and require the most work. Each one is graded according to its own merits, which means that students can get an "A" on any level of project. Which project level students choose is a matter of how much of a challenge they are willing to accept. In the first year, I am going to make each project level optional. Next year, I am thinking about requiring students to choose a few projects to choose gold or silver level requirements.
I am using Edmodo as a way to field questions from students and let them chat among themselves. I will poll them periodically about their background knowledge, their progress, and solicit feedback about project design. I am also using the neat badge feature. The first three badges have no grade impact and are awarded for adventurer (risk taker), detective (inquisitiveness), and helper.
Potential Issues
I researched the potential downside of flipped classrooms to be prepared for parent conversations and to ensure that it is a success. The biggest drawbacks center around traditional teachers not being able to stop being the "sage on the stage" and difficulty making videos. I don't think either one is an issue for me, but there are a few other potential issues:
- It is almost impossible to control if the students watch the videos for their homework. Students that opt not to watch the videos at home can watch them in class and they will lose time that could be spent actually working on their project. Maybe each and every student doesn't have to watch the videos. If enough students watch them, then they can collaborate to understand the project. If it becomes more important that students watch the videos at night, then I can require them to take a brief online quiz after they watch it. Off of the top of my head, I would have about ten questions and ask each student three randomly chosen questions. They could share answers, but finding enough students to get all of the answers is probably more work than answering them yourself.
- Even though teachers are encouraged to use audio and video for developing their materials, it is still not guaranteed that these materials will be engaging for the students. I think that the videos will be engaging because they will mostly be screen cams of me actually using the software or surfing the web. I am using version 2 of Camtasia Studio and it is a very cool product to create videos of computer activities.
- There is no opportunity for the student to ask a question in real time when they don’t understand something in the lecture. I am using Edmodo, so students can ask questions. I will not be available to answer the questions every night, but maybe other students will be online. In addition, I will encourage posting questions at night so I can see who is actually watching the videos.
- In order to make group activities in a F2F or synchronous classrooms successful teachers need to be skillful at team building and team monitoring. In general, students work on their own projects. They can collaborate with others and must do original work. In the case of a spreadsheet activity, each student has their own data. They can work together on the concepts, but cannot simply copy and paste.
- Whether delivered in class or via instructional videos, lecture is still a poor mode of information transfer. I use lectures only to introduce concepts to the students. In addition, the videos are of me modelling how to do something; more relevant than just facts and figures.
Resources
For other resources, visit: The Friday Institute and The Flipped Learning Network. | ||
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