Flip The Classroom

 

I am fortunate to have a fairly IT savvy husband who not only teaches but also manages the IT system at a local high school. I was therefor very grateful to him for passing on a magazine titled Education Technology Solutions. One of the articles that caught my attention in this magazine is "Flip The Classroom And Deliver Gold Learning Nuggets To Students" by Dinesh Poorun and Dr Greg Whateley. The flipped classroom model (or blended learning model) is based on the premise that the students that we teach in todays classrooms are good at decoding information via media. It therefor should come as no surprise that one of the main ideas behind a flipped classroom is to provide short instructive videos which can be watched at home in lieu of a "lecture" (for lack of a better term) in the classroom. The benefit of doing this is it allows teachers to spend more 1:1 time with each student and students have the opportunity to ask questions and work through problems with the guidance of their teachers and the support of their peers – creating a collaborative learning environment. With the potential to personalize learning for students, the flipped classroom model certainly has its place in the future of primary and secondary education but what happens for those who don't have access to appropriate technology at home? Another educator who is also exploring this question can be found here.