Venture Lab DNLE – Individual Assignment #1 Elaine “Missy” Braden

Flipping the Classroom Can’t you see it - row after row of desks, silent students absorbing information from their all-knowing teacher, then rushing home to complete their homework with no trouble? Too bad that just doesn’t work. It probably never really worked all that well, and in today’s world of increasing use of technology in education and beyond, it doesn’t work at all. So let’s try something new. Let’s see what happens when we flip things around, and instead of spending class time listening to lectures and being passive learners, let’s allow the students to listen to those lectures at home and spend class time in a much more interactive way. There are many ways to head towards flipping the classroom, but we are going to start with a pretty simple method of allowing the learner to access the instructional material at home, and use class time for collaboration, “homework”, and other more learner-centered activities. Most people think okay, we can try that, it makes sense to flip things around for many classes. However, questions immediately pop into mind. How do we make these lectures interesting? How will the students access them? How effective can I be at making video lectures? How will I find the time to do this? Relax, there are options. Maybe you just can’t make your own videos. There are sources out there for anything from pre-made videos on many topics to sites that can help you make your own. Three options for instructional material are Khan Academy, Ted-Ed, and Knowmia. Each has advantages and disadvantages, and deserves further study. One of the keys to successful integration of any new method or technology is finding the right fit for both instructors and learners. The following summary of each of these three websites addresses just a few of these issues.

Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/ http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/all/1

Advantages

Self-paced – Khan Academy has approximately 3000 lectures in many subjects that allow the student to watch the lectures once or over and over. They can move on to the next topic as they master a current topic without having to wait on everyone to “get it” before moving on.

Learner centered – although sitting and watching videos is passive, students are interacting to a certain degree and the instruction is delivered with a one-on-one mentality.

Frees up teacher to help with questions in classroom – using the Khan Academy videos frees up the teacher to help with homework, answer questions, and interact with the students.

Disadvantages

Content may be hit and miss – there is no correlation to standards or common core, so teachers must be sure that using these videos for instruction cover all of the topics they need to address.

Less interaction with teacher (social issues) – as students shift to instruction being a home activity, there is different interaction with an adult in the classroom. The student-student interaction is affected too and must be monitored.

Too repetitive, drill – some users feel that there is too much repetition and drill and practice in the videos.

Ted-Ed http://ed.ted.com/about

Advantages

Customizable – teachers can use the videos already on the site, create their own, or make a hybrid by modifying existing videos. Even any YouTube video can be used and edited.

Engaging – many of these videos are created by teachers experienced in making videos and are often more engaging than videos on other websites.

Teacher supported by experts – instructors don’t have to do all of the work. The “staff” at Ted-Ed assists teachers in making and editing their videos.

Disadvantages

Intimidating – some teachers are very intimidated at the idea of making a video that will be seen by students, parents, and others.

Time – even the most basic video takes time to make, and most teachers feel that they are already strapped for time.

Internet access needed – although all of these instructional ideas need internet access, making your own videos, uploading them, etc. may require higher connection speeds and more access time than is available.

Knowmia http://www.knowmia.com/

Advantages

Teaches teachers how to make video lessons – the instructional value of this website for helping teachers learn how to make good video lessons is better than it is for most other sites.

Databank of videos available – the website says that there are over 8000 videos already accessible.

Knowmia staff helps tag and organize videos submitted – as the use of video instruction increases, this organizational assistance may be extremely helpful.

Disadvantages

Tools for teachers - tracking of student progressis not available yet but is supposed to become an added tool.

Knowmia Teach– the mobile app for Knowmia is only available for Apple iPad.

High school topics only – this is very limiting at this time.