The technological secret to successfully flipping your classroom is the ability to create “vodcasts”... teacher created instructional videos. While the wealth of materials available out there on the web means that we, as teachers, need not always reinvent the wheel, there will be times when highly customised vodcasts are preferred. The Flipped Classroom website is dedicated to teaching teachers how to screencast to support individual efforts to flip the classroom

Image Source: Teachercast Podcasting Network

Flipping the Classr

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ryNOV 2013NEWSLETTER

This month: A Focus on Flipping the ClassroomWhat is Flipped Learning?

Flipped Learning occurs when direct instruction is moved from the group teaching space to the individual learning environment. Class time is then used for higher order, active problem solving by students and one-to-one or small group interactions with the teacher. Educators are embracing Flipped Learning in elementary and secondary schools for all subjects. 

The above statement comes directly from The Flipped Learning Network, begun by

educators Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams, the generally accepted founders of the flipped classroom model. They embarked upon this road when they found themselves teaching together at a rural school... a school where students missed a lot of class time on account of lengthy travel times back and forth to school, or on account of sports and other school activities. Sound familiar?

If you are interested in learning more about what’s involved in flipping your classroom, The Flipped Learning Network is the place to start. There are regularly scheduled free webinars designed to help teachers find their comfort level to support initial attempts to flip their classroom.

There are also a number of subject specific Education Ning’s - basically support groups for teachers. Join one and engage in the conversation. There is one specifically for first time flippers.

The Soup is On!ESA’s SEEDS Me to We group will host their first Great Soup Community Lunch of the year on Mon Nov 11th. Mark your calendars. For just $6 per person, we provide soups, salads, homemade breads and goodies. All proceeds go to charity. If you’d like to contribute a food item, fill out the Google Form by Nov 6th.

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Image from Edudemic

Flipping the Classroom

Other News...

Tidbits that hopefully will interest someone...

MashableIndie news site “dedicated to covering digital culture, social media and technology.” There is always something interesting to be found at Mashable.

Teachercast.netTeachercast.net is the place for teachers to help other teachers. Of particular interest are the App Reviews, Educational Videos and the Online Video Tutorials.

21st Century Fluency ProjectCo-founded by educator Ian Jukes, the purpose of the 21st Century Fluency Project is to “develop exceptional resources to assist in transforming learning to be relevant to life in the 21st Century. If nothing else, sign up to receive the Committed Sardine Blog, and check out their recommendations for the 10 Best Web Tools for Flipped Classrooms.

Internet@Schools MagazineAvailable online, providing free access to both current and archived editions, Internet@Schools provides interesting article about EdTech Issues, and product reviews of a variety of free (and paid) tools which teachers might find os use in their classroom. Mind, you can see it for free because of the advertising on the site. Look past the ads and there are some gems every once in a while.

App of the WeekAre you interested in a weekly e-mail highlighting an App which has interest from an educational perspective? Last month’s feature App’s are archived on the ESA Library EduBlog.

If you are interested in being on the receiving end of the weekly e-mail, and/or interested in keeping up with what else is going on in the Library, sign up here.

Happy App’ing.

File SharingFlipping your classroom may involve

your wanting to share files with students. Often files are too large to be handled by mail servers. Two services which will allow you to send files up to 2GB in size are Just Beam It and We Transfer.

Richard Byrne, of FreeTech4Teachers has written brief articles about each. Access them here: Just Beam It or We Transfer.

ScreencastingMashable (see yellow sidebar) has a

great reference site discussing 12 screencasting tools for creating video tutorials.

Wikipedia also hosts a webpage providing comparisons of a variety of screencasting software/applications.

Screencast.com seems to be generally recognised as the screencasting tool of choice. Read more at the Committed Sardine Blog.

Science 360Some courses tend to lend themselves

more easily to flipping. Science and Geography are two which come readily to mind, since there is a wealth of great video (and other) resources already out there.

With that in mind, take a look at Science 360. Hosted by the National Science Foundation, Science 360 is searchable by

topic or by series. Featured topics include sustainability and climate change.

Bulb: Create, Browse, Share Educational Media

Bulb is a new service which allows you to create collections of various media. These collections could easily be on specific topics you wish to teach, or skills you wish to develop.

One beauty of Bulb is that students do not need to create accounts to view your offerings. Further, collections may be shared via various social media forums.

VideoNot.esExpecting your students to watch videos

on their own? Need them to take notes while they’re watching?

Videonot.es is the answer. Watch your YouTube video on the left side of the screen, while typing notes on the notepad which appears on the right hand side of the screen.

Best of all, VideoNot.es integrates with Google Drive. As we bring students on board with the Google Apps for Education this will allow for sharing of notes, and questions, back and forth.

This will further allow students to collaborate and teachers to tailor lessons/discussions based on the observations and/or questions students have referenced in the notes made while viewing. Timely at it’s best!

Happy Hallowe’en at ESA!