The Flipped Classroom - so what exactly am I flipping?

The Flipped Classroom concept is an idea that has been floating around for a while. It has been in the media recently alongside the growing popularity of a group called the Khan Academy. The Khan Academy as explained in last week's Economist, is becoming a favourite learning aid for many teachers. The traditional definition of a flipped classroom is something like this...

Where videos take the place of direct instruction. Thereby allowing students to get individual time in class to work with their teacher on key learning activities. It has been called the flipped class because what used to be classwork (the "lecture" is done at home via teacher-created videos and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is now done in class.

The initial idea was that the internet could provide students with 24hr/7day a week access to learning materials, and that this could make our class time more effective. To me this is a similar notion to the university concept where you needed to read the textbook chapter before the lecture, to make sure you understood the basic ideas. The growth of the Khan Academy and their suite of learning resources for Maths and Science is now making this is concept a reality for many teachers. The following video is one of the nicest explanations I have seen.

The flipped classroom concept can now be linked to some broader teaching ideas. By providing students with online learning resources, the students can take responsibility for their own learning. The time in class with the teacher can be an opportunity for more meaningful and personalised interactions. It is a classroom where the teacher can become more of a "guide on the side" and not the "sage on the stage" It is a concept where information and resources from class are stored and archived so that students can access and personalise thier learning overtime.

This sounds just like my classroom..?

Many classes at UWCSEA already follow a similar idea, and I think that this is a concept that we should be trying to follow in specific subject areas such as Science, Maths and Economics/Business. Overtime it will help us become more efficient teachers and support learning. With student laptops the idea of a flipped classroom is more achievable. Lots of teachers place resources on StudyWiz and ask the students to prepare for class by putting resources up prior to the lesson. But here are a few further reflective questions to ponder?

1. Do you provide students with an outline of where the next lesson is heading? Where can they find this outline?
2. Do you point students to specific resources which could support their learning in the next lesson,  or next topic?
3. How do students access these resources? Are the resources effective, dynamic and interesting? Is there an filing system of where these are saved?
4. Do you share these resources and collaborate across the department with other teachers?
5. Do you give students your presentation/notes before the lesson or guard it until the students finish the topic?

I must confess that I taught in a laptop school for three years and struggled to adopt all of these ideas. I was successful with the following which in my opinion are the first steps towards a flipped classroom. 

• Using my StudyWiz classes and the information box to explain the focus of learning, both backwards (where we have come from) and forwards (where we are going next)
• Provided at least one resource ahead of the next topic to prepare students. In the simplest context this was sometimes a chapter reading from the textbook. Sometimes I would point them to a specific video from an Economist on YouTube. 
• I would often give students my presentations as a PDF file at the beginning of the topic so that they didn't need to copy down copious amounts of graphs. This allowed them to read ahead to the next lesson and be prepared.

The biggest challenge..?

The significant pedagogical change required is the shift from being the lecturer at the front of the class to becoming a facilitator of the students learning. For me the shift was hard because I had always been taught in a lecturing style, growing up in the Catholic Boys school environment. 

Be asking students to complete even the smallest amount of learning before class; looking at a video tutorial about light , flicking through a Prezi about Development, or reading some notes will make their learning in class more effective. It is recognized in research that students need to revisit new material 2-3 times over 3-4 days and the flipped classroom idea supports this. Classtime is better spent doing hands-on activities, role plays, experiments, looking at case studies and participating in discussions. 

Students need to be taught about taking notes, and overtime being more independent in their learning. If students using time previously dedicated for homework learning about material for the next lesson then I think they will learn more.

As a teacher it is also hard to find resources which prepare the students for class to the depth that you require. That is why many teachers may think about recording mini-lectures for students and placing these on StudyWiz or will provide students with notes outlines such as in Senior Biology. A nice example of mini-lectures is this idea from a friend, Jason Welker teaching Economics at the Zurich International School.

Graphic Novels in English - Digital Ideas

For the first time some English classes can now use Graphic Novels as one of the literary options. This is part of the redevelopment of the Language A and B courses. With this new change, we took the opportunity to work with Stuart McAlpine to trial some new tools that would support the students learning. The students have been looking at the book Blankets by Craig Thompson.

Digital Ideas:

We needed to use some tools which would allow students to take snippets out of the novel and to then explain the ideas and motifs that were being presented by the author. The simplest tool we discovered was Skitch. This allows students to take some pictures of the novel using the in-built camera on the macbook. Skitch is perhaps the easiest tool for students to add quick annotations to the image and then export the images back to any other program. A nice example is below.

Another idea to develop this further was getting the students to develop a simple narration that identified the motifs of snow, blankets and caves throughout several pages of the text. The technical aspects were intentional kept simple, and the students had to focus on the speaking. The basic process was to use Keynote to add several screenshots from either Skitch or PhotoBooth. Then students chose the play menu and then recorded the presentation with their commentary. The students had some simple notes to help them speak and worked in pairs. Here is a nice example from Christina Yang and Jo (copied with permission)

Reflection:

This was a good opportunity to work with the students, as the activities successfully transformed they way that the students learnt about the novel. Instead of putting ideas on paper and referring to the images from the novel, or perhaps using photocopies, they could annotate directly onto the pages and make specific links to elements of snow, blankets and caves that were being reinforced by the author Craig Thompson. These ideas could be saved back to their notes for revision.

The audio recordings also prompted the students to analyse the novel in more depth, than they would have otherwise. At the same time it also supported their oral presentation skills which are being assessed separately at the end of the course.

The downsides of the activity was the technical skill development. This always takes time, but I believe students have developed a simple skill set of annotating an image and developing a Keynote recording. The sharing of students work needed some refinement. In the end we shared these to the classes Google Site so they are accessible in the future. This required students to upload the video to their own Google Docs first and then fiddle with the sharing settings. They could then add the Google Video to the class page. This did end up with each students being able to watch the recordings, but the process was cumbersome.

Presentation to Staff:

ActivInspired?

ActivInspire has been installed on ALL Primary School college PCs and Macs so you can confidently prepare and use flipcharts safe in the knowledge that your students can open files that they or you have created and open and edit them anywhere.

If they want to work on them at home, that's an option as well, as the ActivInspire is also a free download for Mac, albeit without the resources.

Any flipchart can be saved as a PDF when finished, or of course printed the old fashioned way.

I've also included a PDF file that shows what resources you should have installed on ActivInspire on your Mac, there are loads, and if your list doesn't look like mine, let your friendly neighbourhood ICT Tech know and they can dump the lot on your Mac quite easily (no install needed).

Remember that ActivInspire is a LOT more than a tool for your IWB, it is actually a fantastic general purpose creation tool, drawing , painting, mind mapping, collating and presenting, image compilation, all without the stresses of needing an Internet connection, and a seamless link between modelling via the IWB, and individual work on laptops and PCs.

It it completely cross platform, so any files you create on your Mac, can be transferred to the shared drives and easily owned and edited by students with PCs.

Can't find it on your Mac? Just use spotlight (the magnifying glass at the top right corner) and search for 'Inspire' - I'd keep it in the Dock as well. (right click > options > keep in dock)

My favourite way to use ActivInspire is to either create or even better download/modify one (from Promethean Planet), kick the task off at the IWB with student input - save this 'starter' on a shared drive (Primary Pupil Resources) and let the students open it and save it as their own copy - they continue work on their own in their own space. The most I ever send creating my own flipcharts is about 15 mins max, and only if I can reuse it. The best ones are the simplest.

Finally - I would advise you to use the ActivPrimary interface, rather than the ActivInspire one, apart from the obvious fact that is designed for Primary students (Studio is aimed at 11+) the kids do prefer it. If they have to switch between interfaces it is very confusing for you and them. If you need to change the interface, here's how:

On the menu at the top go to View > Dashboard:



Click Configure, then tick the little yellow box. Quit the Application and Open it again - *Voilá* Primary.

If you would like Grade level help with this über tool, just check my Calendar, and let me know when you want me, or ask me during 'Team Team' (Grades 3-5).


Here's a handy guide to what the pretty little icons mean:

Does your Calender think you are in British Columbia?

Many of you have already started using Google calendars, and this year, sooner or later all of you will, more than likely be getting to grips with electronic calendars like Google Calendars. These are being used more and more frequently throughout the college as a better way of managing the mind boggling array of schedules we all juggle so we can meet each other.

Having and sharing calendars makes this far easier than the usual flurry of emails, reply alls, etcetera that usually ensues when attempting to 'find a time' that works for a group.Usually when you check your mail overseas you will get a prompt from Google asking if you want to change your settings to match your locality, I would click yes. Just remember not to ignore it when it asks you the same question on your return... (which it should). Otherwise...

You will discover that you have stumbled on a common glitch, date settings. For some reason many of your Google accounts are under the impression that you are in Ireland/Iran/Azerbaijan etc. This is probably the price you pay for checking your emails while on holiday.

Here's is how to check and if necessary adjust your date settings:

1. Open Google Calendar (this is important - opening settings in Mail will only allow you to change Mail settings)
2. At the top right, click on Settings > Calendar Settings
3. You should see something like this...
   
   
4. If you copy my settings above you should be fine.
   

Distributing Picture Resources in Class

Ever have one of those days/weeks/months when you just didn't have time to upload your resources to dropbox, StudyWiz eLocker or just worried that students won't download the resources before class?

Fret not. Help is here.

iPhoto has the ability to allow you (and/or your students) to share your various albums with each other via a network.

What this means is that your laptops can now serve as a photo hub resource.

Before we go on, I should mention that you might want to create a separate user or iphoto library for your personal pictures. You can follow these steps to set that up.

Checklist of things you need before we share photos:

1. A network (wireless or otherwise)
2. Specific iPhoto Albums that you would like to share with your class (try to avoid one general album for students to sort through)

Now here's what we do:

Step 1: Launch iPhoto (If you haven't already)

Step 2: In the menu bar, select, iPhoto - Preferences

Step 3: Select Sharing

Step 4: Select the option: Look for shared photos (students have to do this too).

Step 5: Choose the Albums that you wish to share. See below for sample setup for Steps 4 and 5.

You can check on the Require password box if you would like to make sure that only your students have access to your albums.

Easy isn't it?

Introductions to Blogging

A classroom blog can be an important part of your classroom practise and can be used in lots of different ways. Generally a blog is good if your are showing unique pieces of information over a period of time. The material can be sorted using tags, which highlight the key ideas in each post.

Blogs can be a weekly class summary completed by students, an immersion language site, a record of what is happening in class to communicate with parents, or a way to differentiate and extend more able students. 

Video Tutorials - Blogging at UWCSEA

Basic Text Instructions:

1. Visit the website http://blogger.com
2. Sign in with your Google Apps username and password eg. abc@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg
3. Create your private blogger profile, which describes who you are, perhaps Mr Smith.
4. Then click to create a new blog
5. Choose the name of your blog and you can choose the a unique URL address.
6. Then choose the theme. This can be changed later.
7. Once this is complete you can write your first post, by clicking on the pencil button Think about adding pictures, videos and add a label to categorise your post.
8. Then go click on the B icon at top and click on settings, then permissions to invite people to your blog. Blogs can be very private, very public or shared with a few readers. 
9. Remember to bookmark www.blogger.com to quickly access your dashboard.

Diagnostic Assessment using Promethean Activotes

Early this term we did a small trial lesson with the Activotes. These are little voting devices that students can use to participate in assessments run though the teachers laptops and the Promethean Inspire software installed on the staff macbooks. Throughout the school there are several sets of these voting devices which you are able to borrow and use.

Alongside Christine Chaboyer from the Maths Department we used the devices as a start of topic diagnostic assessment tool with Grade 8 students. As Christine was a new teacher, who was taking over the this class she needed a fun tool to assess the students prior knowledge. She set up a simple flip-chart with 20 multi choice questions. These can either be typed on or copied and pasted into the flip-chart from existing resources. Her great teaching strategy was to create these questions with some common mistakes to act as trap multiple choice questions. These assessment can therefore become concrete evidence where the cognitive gaps in the students learning exists.

How do the Activotes work?

This is a nice tutorial developed by Gordon Hirons from the Maths Department - click here to download

1. Create a flipchart, and chose to insert questions. One per chart.
2. Once this is complete you need to choose the Tools menu and then Express Poll
3. A floating icon will pop up, select the icon, then Assign Devices to Students
4. You need to create a database of student names
5. Once this is complete, you need to use the floating icon again to register devices
6. Easiest way to register the devices is to give them out to the students and then choose the register with pin option. Students look at the projector and add the devices.
7. You need to check within preferences that the devices are set to Activotes and not Active Expressions. This is an option under the Inspire menu and then Preferences. See below
8. Once the devices are all registered you can click at top right to begin the assessment.

Some of the downsides are the on a screen everyone can see the students, who have yet to answer the question, therefore introducing an unintended element of peer pressure. (See 2nd picture below)

The Inspire program gave provided excellent feedback to both the students and the teacher. The class sees a simple bar chart after each question is complete and the teacher has private access to all of a particular students answers. Therefore the teacher can identify comprehension issues at a whole class level or for individual students.