Flipped learning is a pedagogical model in which the teacher delivery during in-class time is flipped with the homework elements of a course.  As a type of blended learning technique, students can watch relevant videos at home, which have been prepared by the teacher, while using their in-class time to focus on exercises, projects or discussions.

My own transition to a flipped learning classroom has been a gradual, organic process.  Although I still believe there is a place for the traditional (“sage-on-the- stage”) teaching approach, I’ve come to recognise the many advantages of a flipped learning model.   Sharing relevant tutorial videos with students and colleagues, both from my own YouTube channel and links elsewhere on the Web, enables me to spend more time as a facilitator of learning.  This simply means that learners spend less time passively listening at the beginning of the lesson and more time engaged in activities to develop their skills.  By doing away with the traditional classroom, which is very teacher centred, it also means that I have extra time to provide valuable one-on-one assistance to students who need it the most.

According to Eric Sheninger (2016), author of Uncommon Learning, there are two main components associated with the flipped learning approach:

1.  Students watch lectures and consume other forms of content outside of school at their own pace whilst communicating with peers and teachers using online learning tools.  In my opinion, this point about students working at their own pace cannot be understated.  The ability for students to pause, rewind and fast-forward a tutorial video means that they are in a much better situation to assimilate new learning.

2.  Students apply what they have learnt during in class time with assistance from the teacher.  As there is more time freed up during the lesson itself, there are more opportunities for small-group work and one-to-one contact with lower-performing students.

In order to make the lesson time itself more engaging while integrating formative assessment, there are many web-based tools that can complement the students’ main in class activities:

– Poll Everywhere

– Plickers

– Kahoot

– TodaysMeet

In addition, there are also some fantastic tools out there for students themselves to become authors, teachers and collaborators, working together to teach content to each other.  Some of the best of these tools include:

– Adobe Voice 

– VideoScribe

– Explain Everything

– Quizlet 

– Google Slides 

As well as giving my students opportunities to use these tools, I have used each one of these applications myself as a medium in which to share information with students for them to learn at their own pace.  As Sheninher himself states though, ‘pedagogy always trumps technology’.  For digital learning to be implemented effectively, we should focus on pedagogy first and technology second.  When integrating technology, we need to remember that it is less about the tool and more about what students can do with the tools handed to them.

That being said, with all these web-based tools and other digital applications available, it makes sense that a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or 1:1 technology initiative can radically enhance the flipped learning model.  By providing students with access to their own device, it can bring out the best of what flipped learning has to offer.  According to Sheninger (2016, pp. 117),

The flipped classroom is an excellent first step in making students’ in-class experiences more active, more student centred, and more meaningful. Combining the best aspects of the flipped classroom with the power of 1:1 technology would allow for an even more radical reshaping of the classroom. School should become a place where students can learn at their own individual paces, become active creators instead of solely passive content recipients, and learn in an environment that they “own”, which adjusts rapidly to meet their learning needs and interests.      

At the start of the academic year I make sure to plan several e-safety lessons for students from 7 years and up.  This is a logical topic to start with because it outlines the behaviours that students should follow online.   This year  I also delivered an e-safety assembly, which, in keeping with the themes for Safer Internet Day, provided an overview of:

– Online Safety

– Digital Responsibility

– Positive Uses of Technology

As each of these themes cover very different aspects of e-safety, I put together this short video animation using Video Scribe to consolidate and reinforce students’ learning:

After watching this video, we played “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” Safer Internet Edition using this PowerPoint:

[embeddoc url=”https://technologyforlearners.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/millionaire_template.ppt”]

In addition, we looked at key statistics based on responses from a Safer Internet Google Form that I had sent out to all students just weeks prior to the assembly.  This made for interesting commentary during the assembly about students’ opinions, attitudes and behaviours with respect to e-safety.  Here are some of the results that we gleaned from the survey, which I included in the presentation for students:

About 1 in 5 of you think that all the information on the Internet is TRUE!

More than half of you spend 3 hours or more on the Internet everyday – and at weekends, most of you spend 5 hours or more online!

The most popular social networks are:

• YouTube
• WhatsApp
• Snapchat
• Instagram

About 1 in 10 of you claim to have been cyber bullied at some point.

About half of you say that you know someone who has been cyber bullied.  

Exactly 1 in 10 of you say that you have been asked to send inappropriate pictures of yourself to someone else.

We also used the assembly to focus on the topic of cyberbullying, raising awareness of the problem and providing guidance on how to tackle it.  Our school’s psychologist used the opportunity to discuss with the students the topic of empathy, emphasising the importance of respecting differences between individuals.

This assembly was concluded by reminding students of the SMART rules for Internet Safety:

Safe – be careful not to give out personal information online.

Meeting – remember, online friends are still strangers.

Acceptable – accepting unknown emails can cause problems.

Reliable – always check information with other websites.

Tell – report problems to a trust adult.

Concluding thoughts…

We all have a role to play to make the Internet a better place.  This means demonstrating good netiquette, keeping ourselves and other people safe, as well as creating positive content.  For more information, it is worth taking a look at The Ultimate Parent Guide for Protecting Your on the Internet.

I recently attended a series of workshops on Talk for Writing, a strategy for teaching children to write.  Developed by the English educational writer and poet, Pie Corbett, Talk for Writing is based on the principle that before children can write it, they need to be able to say it.  The approach uses a three-stage pedagogy:

1. Imitation – Engaging activities help children internalise the pattern of language required.  Children recite aloud an exemplar text, supported visually by a story map and physical movements to help them recall the text.

2. Innovation – Shared writing is the key activity at this stage, helping children become independent writers by “doing one together first”.  By developing their ability to choose appropriate words and phrases, this stage enables children to then write their own versions.  After working in response partners, the whole class can discuss some of the more successful writing with the aid of a visualiser.

3. Invention –  This stage provides children with an opportunity to alter, develop and polish their writing in light of what they have learnt.  The teacher continues to focus on the next steps necessary to support children’s progress, so that they can become independent speakers and writers of the text being studied.

Technology for learners…

In order to facilitate this pedagogy, the following five iPad apps are perfect tools.  I have put together some quick video demonstrations and tutorials below to explain how they can be used for the teaching & learning of Talk for Writing:

Action Movie FX – A great special effects app for providing “hooks” to engage reluctant writers!

Aurasma -Using augmented reality, Aurasma can bring stories to life (think Harry Potter-type newspapers) and help to develop children’s use of ambitious vocabulary.

VideoScribe – This app is perfect for creating story maps.  By providing an animation in which a hand visually draws out the text, children are more engaged and more likely to remember the text they have just read.

Adobe Voice – Particularly good for non-fiction writing, this app provides an efficient way for children to quickly make engaging presentations.

Puppet Pals – Using this app, children can easily create their own animated stories.