flipping the classroom
I have read about this in the past and was anxious to implement it in my classes. The big problem I face is at our school there are NO RESOURCES for us to do the video taping of our lectures, no clickers. When a faculty tried to do an online quiz for her students she was told it couldn't be controlled so she shouldn't do it.
I think that educators and administrators are often reluctant to try a new method of teaching, especially when there is more of an 'unknown' element involved as there is with the flipped classroom and the idea of students having more interaction with each other. Still I think the instructor who wanted to do an online quiz should have been given the opportunity to try it out, even if it was used as more of an in class activity the first few times rather than using it as an actual assesment or quiz the first time around. It is important for educators and administrators to not let the fear of the unknown keep them from trying new instruction methods that might be more effective for their students. It is often better to try something and fail so you can use it as your own learning opportunity than to stick with what is safe and traditional even though it will not provide increased opportunities for learning to your students.
Reply to Scott Prophet's post:I agree! I am trying very hard to implement online activities and quizzes as soon as possible into my lectures and classes.
We also don't have the current set-up for video production. I think it would be marvelous to invest in faculty training to learn to not just record a live class lecture, but to specially produce lectures for online viewing. Curriculum writing would really change with dividing the didactic lecture portion for home and the hands on in class. I love this idea and look forward to learning more and investigating the type of budget needed to incorporate this.
My students are currently transitioning to online in some of their modules. I think one of the biggest hurdles for myself as the instructor is that some students are not prepared for todays technology. I teach adult students and some are more mature than others, so to establish the online training I must make sure all students are educated on the advancement of Technology today.
I have a bit of a different take on the training - and I think everyone on this thread probably has the same opinion, so forgive me if I'm stating the obvious...
I don't let technology get between me and my students, and I also don't feel I have to personally create every piece of course material.
Let me give a concrete example. I taught a class of dual enrollment High School students who are earning credit at our University. I assigned them to watch a short <2 minute YouTube video with their parents and then pose a question (that I provided) to their parents and get their answer before coming to class. The lively and very active discussion we had in class about those "kitchen table" talks was fantastic. Very high energy, and I know it was memorable for the students.
I feel I could have done this just as well by sending Higher Ed students home with a printed photo and having them pose a question about the photo (perhaps both extracted from the textbook) to their family and friends. Not much technology or content creation on my part needed.
Reply to Paul Nussbaum's post:I tend to agree with Paul. I am not sure that the most engaging thing we can expose our students to outside of the classroom is more of ourselves. Though MOOCs and the attendant technology that has informed discussions of the flipped classroom can be transformative, I think that we have unfortunately fallen into the lazy habit of defining the flipped classroom as a model where students watch recorded lectures outside of the classroom. To me, the defining element of the flipped classroom is that students are faced with active engagement in the content during class time rather than passive absorption of information.
