This week while designing an online course which needs a module about Flipped Learning I decided to revisit and repurpose a lecture I presented a few years ago in Argentina.
The topic is still up to date as more and more teachers have been trying to adopt Blended Learning and Flipped Learning is one of the possibilities.
I talked about some misconceptions about Flipped Learning and what really matters.
BERGMAN, J.; SAMS, A. (2012) Flip your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. International Society for Technology in Education, USA.
This afternoon, I learned about a website and app which allows us to upload a presentation either from our computer or from google drive and record our voice and image using our webcam. http://www.movenote.com/
My first trial was with my ipad. The ipad app is FREE, however, you can only use photos you have on your device or a photo you take with the ipad to include to your presentation. Other than that, the app is very simple to use and the quality of the recording seems to be really good. https://api.movenote.com/v/saNK4Xb_Jds
There are several things I like about the FLIPPED CLASSROOM model:
- First, you save a lot of time for really practising the language if students have access to the theoretical part of the explanation beforehand (at home).
- Second, if a student is absent, he can always catch up.
- Third, if a student needs more explanation he can watch it as many times as he feels is necessary for his comprehension.
- Fourth, before tests, students can always watch the videos again to help refresh their memories.
This is how I've been TRYING to flip part of my class.
I'm aware there are various ways people have been flipping their classes but it's always important to think of each reality. I work at a Language Institute in Brazil and have to follow a course book for my classes. A moment which I've been finding useful to flip is the grammar explanation part of the lesson during which I would probably deal with the grammar focus. There are various videos available online, however, I sometimes prefer the ones I make myself as I try to make them more personal and as short as possible.
My most successful "flips", in my opinion, have been recording screencasts of myself explaining the grammar focus with examples. In addition, I assign a quiz to my students using Edmodo after a few classes of practice.
The instructions
The Quiz
I normally create a multiple choice quiz with 10 questions. They have 5 mins to answer the quiz which is corrected by Edmodo automatically.
The following class after the quiz, we go over each question and answers as I have access to the question most students had problems with.
This week, I wanted to try something different so I started to look for different tools I could use to make flip videos. The result of my search is a board I've created at http://learni.st/category/featured
I had watched one of Tamas Szakal's metta videos and just loved it. Unfortunately, I had no idea I would find it so hard to figure out how it works. I tried to find a tutorial, but to no avail, I had to rely on my trials and errors to manage to make this first trial video.
In my previous post, I talked about a concept which I first heard about in Khan's lecture at TED "flipping the classroom". The idea of recording videos of lectures and devoting classroom time for practice activities seems to be VERY INTERESTING.
Then, I thought, how could we flip our English classes? In my context, in language institutes, we normally start our classes presenting a new topic (vocabulary or grammar) and then move on to exercises (written and oral) to help students consolidate knowlegde by using it.
I guess a way of flipping our classrooms would be to record mini lessons presenting the topic beforehand and then practice, practice, practice in class.
My question is: would students watch the video at home?
I've just talked to 3 Brazilian teenagers at home (my son and 2 cousins) and I made them the same question:
If you had to watch a video for homework, would you watch it? Boys- Maybe not.
But if your teacher told you to watch a video in order to be able to do some exercises the following class, would you watch the video? Boys - We would, we would be afraid of not being able to do the exercises the following class but many of our classmates wouldn't. They would ask the teacher to explain again.
And if you had access to lots of video lectures before tests, do you think it would help you study? Boys- Sure, if we had problems we would be able to watch the video lecture again and again.
Well, I think the idea is fantastic, however, I don't know how well Brazilian learners would adapt to it. The problem is that our students have been accustomed to the traditional format for too long and end up having a passive attitude to learning.
Is it worth a try? I truly think so. If I'm brave enough, maybe next semester, I'll post about a flipped experience in an English Class.
This is a video from Students who have tried the Flipped Classroom
