Flippy-Floppy Classrooms

The idea of a "Flipped Classroom" and knowing the benefits and drawbacks is different that actually putting the flipped classroom into practice and understanding its effectiveness.  The counterargument for applying a flipped classroom would naturally focus on the flip-sides of this type of teaching, stemming from a general fear of a new way of doing things because of the possibility of failure.  Or maybe it is overwhelming considering that we may have to learn a lot of technicalities and technologies too to teach with this method.Well, folks, failure is always a possibility, as much as success.  And if we want to teach our students to love learning, we should first love learning new ways of doing things and putting them to action and not just knowing them.  So before we forget about the positives and negatives of American public schools today and into a proactive, student-based core of education, we should know and consider what the results are.  And then you can deduce what a "flipped classroom" actually is from the benefits and drawbacks for the students and the teachers.  Take for example Khan Academy, a free, online learning community for figuratively, anyone.
           Instead of thinking of sequential, cause and effect learning, think of a blended learning approach or a smoothie of concepts and opinions.  For example, in a typical public school history classroom in the U.S., you may witness the teacher stating a date on a timeline, events that happened that day that were controversial or motivating social or political change, and then what the repercussions were, or rather, another date with events.  Take a look at the students, and you may see them ardently taking notes on paper possibly in handwriting that they can hardly make sense of later.  What are they doing?  They are probably copying, mostly verbatim, of what the teacher is saying or feeding them.  Why are they doing this?  They probably will have to regurgitate these words later on in the same classroom on a paper test feeling ambivalence of anxiety, pressure, and encouraged.  This is the simulation of a real, general public school classroom.  We could make a list of benefits and drawbacks to this type of teaching, and which list do you think would be longer?  Khan Academy takes content outside of the classroom and puts the classroom with chalkboard and all, online.  It is a database of videos of any topic or subject of interest you could think of available to view and watch the concepts and ideas being demonstrated and explained.  Examples of subjects include all maths, sciences, economics, humanities, arts, and even test preps. Flipping it to the content being consumed outside of the class, and time spent in class be focused on the practice, application, and sharing ideas of concepts.
          The focus is something not strictly technology-based learning, but a moderate approach combining offline tools and face-to-face learning with online tools of blogs, pod-casts  screen-casts etc.  So how does this help us in this new age when what we have been doing isn't adhering favorable results for our citizens?  The benefits include emphasis on Constructivism and student-based learning, where students inquire and build up knowledge.  Flipped classrooms make it easier to differentiate learning by manipulating tools and environment.  Lectures in form of archives or screen-casts can be preserved or saved to view at anytime by students.  Believe it or not, it makes learning more personal putting a closer monitor on learning and engaging students to a deeper level. Another benefit is that it promotes interactive and collaborative learning, teaching the sense of community and groups which is essentially the structure of society.  Flipped classrooms are also multi-modal and encourages parents to participate in student learning.  Now on the downside, or flip-sides, it can de-emphasize traditional reading assignments or textbooks.  It can suffer technological shortcomings like the costs, time, or systematic failures.  Some students may not have broadband or computers at home.  I will suggest here putting time into the school day for students to have the opportunity to do "at home" work in school, whether during a free period which gives students the option or at the end of the organized learning day.  Another negative effect of this classroom approach is it could cause passive learning through subjective viewing and listening.  To counter that and not merely persuade my audience, I would remind teachers and students that it is a MODERATE approach and therefore, face-to-face and physically engaging learning is happening. Khan is free to sign up, and not only offers a visual and auditory encyclopedia, but it has featured items of news and knowledge pertaining to current events.  It's continuous and refreshed information that you can take away to put into collaborative and hands on action!
         To be a willful teacher, one must be a willing learner.  So before we shut the front door, let's take a look outside where the grass may be greener.

      

images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0PDoS0Q0YpQMVcA5XOJzbkF?p=the%20flipped%20classroom&fr=altavista&ei=utf-8&n=30&x=wrt&fr2=sg-gac&sado=1

I'd also like to note Downingtown S.T.E.M. Academy which is a public, magnet school focused on the process of learning more than the product created.  Their motto is "effort creates intelligence," and teaches in the realm of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Take a look here: http://dasd-sharepoint.dasd.org/Schools/STEMAcademy/Pages/default.aspx

Is Technology the "Superman" for our Education System?

"Waiting for Superman," a 2010 documentary film by director Davis Guggenheim portrays the blundering educational labyrinth that America's school system has formed into.  The subject matter is one difficult to describe; almost as polarizing as global warming.  As an Academy Award-winning director of the novel environmental depiction "An Inconvenient Truth," he has yet again taken an extremely controversial situation and documented it from the eyes of the participants.  In "Superman," he shows the raw truth of the American Public Education System as five children struggle through their heart and mind-rendering schools, waiting to be "saved by Superman."  Four of these children are from poor and African-American or Hispanic families, denoting the status of equality in schools as well as the convoluted economics behind them.  They are highly sympathetic children, taking a toll from their school instead of "serving their souls."  For example, Anthony, a Washington, D.C., fifth-grader, who is parent-less, losing a father to drugs and a mother to indifference. His grandmother is raises him with love, but she will need help to keep him focused. "Superman" focuses on the growing disparity and immediate call to action necessary for the educational system of the United States to improve.

Guggenheim utilizes a plethora of logos hard facts and statistics, personal pathos, ethos or values and morals of society, and obstacle-led schooling.  Through a personal study of these five students, it reveals the hard truth, that they are all waiting for their number coming up in a lottery so they can go to better schools.
The idea is of the tracking system our schools have created; that a certain percentage of individuals are "tracked" at the very beginning of their school years to learn at a pre-diagnosed degree of intellectual quality in order to go into occupations with a correlating degree of qualifications and skills.  Adjunct to this, certain schools hold a status-quo of their own, aligning standards with social economic status and where you are on the tracking system.  If you are put in a failing school or what the film calls "academic stinkholes" or "dropout factories" then you have hardly a hope to graduate with your options of future career endeavors dwindling.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=JMjUSQk5WH4

"There are multiple levels of government, conflicting funding agendas, and inconsistent curricular standards. The challenges are seemingly endless, the bureaucracy stifling to creativity, initiative and efficacy, costs inevitably borne by young innocents who are ill-equipped to pay," says Dino Sossi in an article of MST Times. (Mathematics, Science, and Technology) 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1VX1apvagA

On the other side where the grass is greener, the film highlights educators and administrators as heroes of battle in facing  the bureaucracy.  He also studied five first-year teachers in poor, under-performing public schools, and marveled at their passion and dedication to their students.  What can help these teachers hold on to that dedication and make a change for everyone and not just the small percentage of students they engage?  One idea, is the power of technology. 
My thoughts are that technology at home and in the classroom is not only a renovating system of teaching tools, but a stone in the tracking belt.  In other words, how does technology play a new part in this stagnant, seemingly dooming system that exists?  In what ways can we, as teachers, take our learning outside of school time and in the classroom and extend it into the child's personal life, 24/7.  My belief is that throughout a single day of school, each child should take home at least one thing that really fired up mind wheels and got them excited and passionate about knowledge and learning.  If technological uses could be a tool in guaranteeing that effect, then I am all for exploring the realm it offers.  How do you use it?  What a good question.  Blogs, such as this, create great discussion forms and project idea boards for students individually and collaboratively.  Using Smart-boards in the classroom is a cutting edge way of collaborating in small groups or as a whole class.  Educational websites that are fun and informative offer new, dynamic modes of stimulation in young, active minds. But what else?  How can computers be used effectively?
Intervention classes (Reading intervention, special education, Title I, and English Language Learners): Technology is assimilated into all classrooms. Individualized learning through technology helps struggling students.
Principal enables teachers’ Professional Learning, encourages collaboration and leads change management.    Good principals give teachers the tools they need to teach in a new environment.
  Games and Simulations and Social Media – Students have accessible technology daily to use, and scaffolding the curiosity and highly social nature of students keeps them in schools.
   Daily use of technology in core subject area classes. Personalized learning with technology for engagement and collaboration.
Online Assessment and Feedback: Motivational tool for students to take results as they are for higher achievement.

What about schools who cannot yet afford this?
 One Laptop Per Child also recently appraised its upcoming $99 laptop with claims that it could end the purchase and carrying around of textbooks.

Is technology the Superman of our classrooms...?

http://bcove.me/ljt1yoxk

Maybe not in this way, but it is a part of the equation.