As some readers may know, I am currently working on research as part of a graduate program through Teachers College of Columbia. I have recently narrowed my focus to the following research question:
Does flipped learning help democratize education?
True, this is a loaded question and can be interpreted in numerous ways. For now, however, I have developed two surveys (one for educators, one for students) that will help shed light on this issue.
If you are an educator that incorporates aspects of flipped learning and would like to participate in the research, please complete the survey below. Many educators have already completed the brief online survey, and for that I thank you mightily!
On Thursday, October 18th, three contributors to Flipped-History will be hosting Flipped Learning Open Houses. As described by the Flipped Learning Network...
"Experienced educators in Flipped Classrooms across the globe will open their doors to allow interested educators and students to see how Flipped Learning works and what happens when learning is turned on its head. Flipped Class Open Houses are intended to shed light on this approach to learning and encourage other teachers and administrators to give Flipped Learning a try in their own schools/districts."
Up until recently, the flipped class approach has been adopted mostly by math and science educators. This is your chance to observe the flipped learning models implemented in social studies classrooms! Here is some brief information regarding the three flipped-history educators opening up their classrooms on October 18th. (More information can be found on the official site.)
Tom Driscoll (Putnam, CT)
World History / 10th Grade
Putnam High School
152 Woodstock Ave., Putnam, CT 860 963-6905
Classroom Visits From 8:15-10:00, Q & A until 11.
Stop by the front office to check in, they will be expecting "flipped class" visitors. Proceed to room 45 for classroom visits and the Q & A session.
Three of us recently met on Google Hangouts to discuss the first few weeks flipping our social studies courses this school year. Karl (@kls4711), David (@davidfouch), and I (@Mr_Driscoll) based our discussion on the following topics:
Introducing the Flipped Class Model to Students/Parents
Implementing the Flipped Class (Mastery Pacing, Learning Management Systems, etc.)
Student Reactions/Performance
We broadcast it live and opened it up for comments on Twitter. We were able to address a viewer question (asked through Twitter) during our chat which was great. In the future, we will continue to let people know when these will take place and send out the broadcast link as soon as it is live. If interested in asking any of us questions during the next chat, we would love to hear from you!
***This post was generously contributed by guest blogger Ryan Folmer.***
My old VoiceThread on the French Revolution
For the past several years I have been experimenting with different aspects of the flip model in my social studies classes. I think the key element of the model is to get students activated in the classroom (and throughout instruction) and to move away (as much as possible) from content delivery (something that new resources and technology can do just as well, or better.) I would much rather have my students learn an combination of content and skills through discussions, document analysis, historical investigations, projects and the like. This is really nothing new, John Dewey explored constructivist methods of education more than a century ago. Since that time, social constructivist theories and connectivist theories have expanded Dewey's ideas for the 21st century environment. As a result, the flip model brings together 21st century instruction techniques such as screencasting, social networking, and bring-your-own-technology and combines with with techniques such as project, problem, inquiry and passion-based learning.
Crash Course World History - The French Revolution
As a result of the flip instruction model, a lot can be done in the history and social studies classroom. I began this process myself by moving to a more inquiry and project-based model in my world history classes and supplementing the content material by moving my traditional lectures to Voicethread for students to view on their own time. This worked pretty well, but I still had issues with students relying on lecture-based content delivery and my issues with overburdening students with homework.
History Teachers - "Revolution in France."
So, I continue to experiment and rethink how I will implement my instruction to best help all of my students. I know that my focus will further be on how authentic history learning can be employed both inside and outside of the classroom. I am particularly interested in reducing the amount of content consumed at home while at the same time making it more interesting. For my world history courses, this means utilizing one of my new favorite resources - Crash Course World History. The (what will soon be a series of 40) videos created by the team here do a great job covering the basics of most of what I want my students to know. I would also supplement this with the musical talents of the History Teachers - History for Music Lovers, a great set of topic specific videos based on recent pop hits. It all comes back to the idea of teachers being great curators. As a result, I am thinking of reducing my VoiceThread screencasts to general overview of topics at the beginning of a unit, to topics not covered by the resources mentioned above, and for review purposes at the end of the unit. By bringing the other videos into VoiceThread or embedding them in Edmodo, I can still give my students a way to interact and ask questions of me. Plus, I know the creators of the videos listed above monitor their YouTube channels and answer student questions, adding another great interactive resource.
I think there are a lot of possibilites for increasing student engagement both with online content and what is done in the classroom. For more insights on this, read Tom Driscoll's post here. In a bit of serendipity, we were thinking about similar issues at about the same time.
