Today in SEDU 183, we learned about Teaching Channel, a website that provides a treasure trove of videos for use by educators. Teaching Channel's diverse array of resources features instructional videos designed to inform teachers about methods, strategies, and styles of classroom management, ideas for new lesson plans and suggestions to supplement existing ones, and many more great things.
The "Reading Like A Historian" series of videos caught my eye. Seemingly tailored for teachers in higher-level history courses, this series features and overview, step-by-step examples, and a full lesson video regarding how to teach students the art of, well, reading like a historian through critical analysis of documents. The series comprises many videos, starting with the one to which I've linked, and covers all bases with regards to the mechanics, classroom implications, and importance of teaching kids the skill of historical analysis. It even features a full-legnth, recorded class period in which a teacher exemplifies this approach, which is a great reference. I found these videos fascinating, even though I've yet to watch all of them, as there is a great deal of content.
he's investigating history. it's the best i could do.
Another video I enjoyed was Inquiry-Based Teaching: Powerful Ideas. This is another video that stresses the importance of primary-source documents, in addition to featuring teacher explanations and examples of discussion-based teaching as opposed to standard textbook learning. In the video, Mr. Barlowe explains his use of "inquiry-based teaching," a strategy that involves students giving their opinions about documents in a Socratic Seminar-style setting in an attempt to dig out the "big idea" out of the lesson. I had experience with these discussions in high school, but mostly in English class regarding literature.. It was enlightening to see the strategy at work in a historical context, and inspiring to say high school students tackling such controversial and high-concept issues as the definition of freedom.
Teaching Channel seems like a great resource for educators. All teachers should take advantage of this great database and its plethora of great videos and articles with helpful suggestions and advice!
Flipped learning is a new concept that stems from the widespread availability of technology in the home. The idea is to invert, or "flip," the academic activities that are traditionally performed at home with those that generally take place at schools. This generally involves giving students video or audio lectures to watch and listen to at home, and providing them with in-class worksheets and activities.
This article on The Daily Riff outlines the history and implications of flipped classrooms. The system was originally devised by high school chemistry teachers Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann. Because many students at their rural school frequently missed class due to sports and other extracurricular activities that required extensive travel, Sams and Bergman sought to provide these students with classroom materials for use at home. They worked together to find solutions, and eventually began using narrated PowerPoint presentations and screen-captured videos to provide instruction outside the physical boundaries of the school. These innovations coincided with the rise of Youtube and online video technology, and advancements in this area since the inception of flipping have made it even easier for teachers to take on similar strategies.
According to TechSmith.com, a flipped classroom provides teachers with several key benefits. The first is more one-on-one time with each student. Students, theoretically, do not need a teacher present to hear a lecture in the digital age. By moving lectures outside the classroom, teachers can focus their in-class time on working with individual students rather than spending most of their time giving general, class-wide instruction. This, in turn, fosters stronger relationships between teachers and students and can lead to improved communication between faculty and those in students' homes. Digitizing instruction also affords students the ability to learn at their own pace in new ways; unlike an in-person lecture, a recorded lecture can be paused and rewound to each student's individual liking. This enhances their ability to digest material.
Aaron Sams, along with Brian Bennett of ESchoolNews, warns teachers not to fall into preconceived notions about the flipped learning environment. They argue that the scope of recorded material for student use at home is not limited to lectures - it can also be used to raise questions with students, provide them with examples, involve interactive material, and many other functions. In addition, Sams and Bennett offer the notion that a flipped system allows for "homework" to be dealt with in a much more dynamic manner than in a traditional classroom, and that even students without internet access can make use of digital instruction through a teacher's use of the right media. Classrooms, they say, are far from dull even if they are filled with students doing "homework"-style material; they are teeming with constructive chaos, group work, and student participation.
In my opinion, a completely flipped classroom might be too difficult to control - I think the total removal of lecture-style material from the school day might make students prone to distraction and cause their listening ability and attention span to lapse. However, I do think that partial integration of the flipped ideals can help streamline the classroom. Dynamic styles of instruction could surely be of great benefit to all students and help teachers take on a more active role with students without erasing their traditional classroom role.
Here are some more resources I used to learn about flipped classrooms:
MrBaldwinBCRS is a Youtube channel operated by a real social studies teacher that features some of his flipped lessons, including the one above. As a Secondary Ed major with a focus on Social Studies, I feel like these examples could provide me with a lot of direction for effective flipping.
This article on Edutopia looks at flipped classrooms through instructionist and constructionist perspectives of education, and raises questions about what sort of materials and methods ought to be flipped.
Bill Nye, noted mechanical engineer and education advocate, offers his perspectives on the potential benefits of the flipped classroom.
Education writer and History Ph.D. Jill Rooney provides an in-depth look at the pros and cons of flipped learning on OnlineColleges.net.
