Dr. Gaiten brought up this unusual topic in his visit to our humble classroom. I had never heard about it before and to be honest the concept, while it has it merits, kind of confuses me.
It sounds like a great idea, and I think it would work really well in the higher grades, or in a classroom where the majority of the students are highly motivated. I did my own research on the internet regarding flipped classrooms and the reviews were mixed. It seems to do well in the older grades and in classes such as Math, Science, and Social Studies. I haven't really come up with anything for English classrooms (other than finding a fellow blogger who has tried in in his English classroom in which it had less-than desirable results).
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Cute Smiling Caucasian Kid With Laptop(For reals, this is the title of the picture) |
I think my favourite part of Dr. Gaiten's presentation was when he opened the Chatzy window. However, I am rapidly becoming aware that I am absolutely bad at multi-tasking (which is kind of sad, because women all over the world claim that multi-tasking is a woman's job), especially when I have a computer in front of me. Whenever I someone mentions a website or a concept that I have never heard of before, and if it intrigues me, I automatically do a search on Google and then I become so absorbed in my "research" that I block everything else out. When I'm done, I come back and I am absolutely confused because I have lost track of the presentation and don't even know what the presenter is talking about.
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Oh! I was talking about Chatzy! I loved it! I loved how if any students had a question during the presentation, they could just type it in and not interrupt the presenter, it also gives the students a chance to co-learn. If anyone had a question, they would just type it in and if someone knew the answer, they could just answer them within the window. It seems like a wonderful concept, but I think you would have to have very specific outlines before you actually open the chat window. Otherwise, the students will be giving each other e-hugs and making disparaging remarks about old people the whole time (haha!).
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| Me on the computer. Isn't my red couch snazzy? |
Until next time,
Sylvia
PS. I am consciously trying to use royalty-free photos and properly credit them, so these are the credits for the pictures I used today, in the order they appear:
Photostock, Stuart Miles, and Ambro.
Sylvia, you are correct there are a lot of different views on the "flipped" classroom. You were ill for our class discussion about it and almost everyone in the class bashed it except for Rachel and I...even Mike N! I was a little surprised by how much everyone disliked the idea, yet Landon White runs a very similar class set up and they all loved him? I find so much of the time in a classroom is spent explaining,re explaining and then explaining again and the students tune out every time...yet if they could listen to a short explanation at home or during a spare before class a lot more time could be spent working together on the concept. I think that it would provide opportunities for gifted and quick learners in a class to excel while giving the teacher extra time to work with those students who need extra attention. As with any concept it is not perfect but I think it has some great qualities as well and should not be discredited. :) P.S. How did you do on your exam? I bet you did GREAT!
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ReplyDeleteBefore reading Tammy's reply to your post, Sylvia, I was going to say that the flipped classroom totally reminds me to Landon White's ideas. I really enjoyed both presentations however I am still a little hesitant about the flipped classroom idea.
I agree that the students would have to be HIGHLY motivated in order for this concept to work. What I like about Landon's use of technology in the classroom is that it is an important component in the class but there is still that element of teaching that I am so passionate about.
I like that Landon uses technology to keep students up to date when they are not in school and to motivate the kids who may not be motivated to hand write responses. I also loved his explanation of the Edmodo tool and how he uses it in his classes.
As usual, another wonderful and entertaining post Sylvia. Keep up the outstanding work!
haha Sylvia, your blogs always make my day better. Is that seriously the caption of the first picture? WOW!
ReplyDeleteI also loved chatzy! I want to try it in my own classroom too! But I agree that you have to have guidelines so that the students don't get off task. Even our convo got pretty off task (example: the world ending before we had a chance to try these things, and old people not being able to use technology haha)
Actually, the flipped classroom idea has some merit - Landon's use of the idea is NOT what I don't like. My biggest concern is that it is often based on a lecture style presentation and rote or algorithmic learning. If it can be used to stimulate thought and discovery/inquiry, then it can be useful. I often see it applied to math (I loved teaching high school math!), if all the math is a guy (me? Sal Kahn?) explaining how to do a problem in a video, well, that reduces math to an algorithm, which do have their place, but the students should be led where possible to discover relationships, and concepts, not just be told about them. So ... it depends on the way the concept is used. See what I mean? Thoughts?
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