Technology for Learning: Flipping the Classroom Part Two

In my last post, I outline all the good reasons to consider flipping your classroom. The main objective would be to remove some of the rote lecture from the classroom and allow students to experience that at home at their own pace, leaving class time for more one on one interaction and differentiated instruction. But is there any downside to flipping? Personally, I do not believe there is and I would like to discuss the arguments against flipping and then perhaps rebut those arguments.

#1 - Does Flipping Increase Homework Time? - If every teacher were to assign a 5-7 minute video every night, that would be a problem no matter where you fall on the homework spectrum. I am not advocating that everyone flip all the time. But it would be great if we were to each flip our classroom once or twice a week. Doing this would give the students a 10 minute homework assignment, which would not add any extra homework burden. It is simply reshaping the homework from classical pen and paper questions to watching a video to prepare for the next lesson.

#2 - Flipping Assumes Every Student Has Internet at Home - thankfully, in our school setting, this is an assumption we can make. However, in some low income neighborhoods, this could potentially be a roadblock to flipping. However, many teachers have found ways around this by creating the screencasts and downloading them onto a cd to send home with the students. In other schools, students are given the chance to watch the videos first thing in the morning before going to class.

#3 - Videos Are One Size Fits All - will my videos attract all kinds of learners? In my experience, the more effective screencasts are ones where they are simple and straight forward enough that you can go figure out my?

#4 - Will the student have the motivation to work through the material? Most research says yes. The combination of students going at their own pace combined with the student being able to rewind the teacher has led to amazing results.

#5 - Will the student have engaged with the material deeply, or superficially? Again, this will depend on the student and the teacher's presentation. Typically, keeping a video down to 5-8 minutes will allow many more of us to upload at one time.

In closing, If you are intimidated to flip, then learn screencasting to create a review of a lesson. Take your time to be convinced of the methodology, but in the meantime start creating screencasts from your PC or iPad.

Creating a Screencast on an iPad