Flip Class: What Is It?
There’s been a lot of talk about the flipped classroom recently. The Twitter hash tag #flipclass has quite a bit of traction, and it’s one I use quite frequently posting for @ENAconnects. Surprisingly, despite the attention it’s been getting, a lot of people have no idea what the flipped class is all about or how it works.
Essentially, once you boil it down, it’s exactly what it sounds like: flipping the way traditional teaching works in the classroom (i.e. lectures at school and homework being done at home). In the flipped classroom setup, students watch videos (prerecorded lectures done by the teacher or videos found online) at home that take the place of an in-class lecture and then dedicate class time to working on assignments, projects, asking questions, etc.
This solution can be especially effective for teachers who wish they had more time for hands-on activities or to ask questions after starting their work.
Additionally, this could give a teacher more one-on-one time to move about the classroom to see how students are doing rather than having to hope the lecture was enough because that’s all that the time constraints would allow in a traditional teaching setting.
It sounds great in theory, but in practice the results are mixed. It’s still a relatively new concept, and some teachers have embraced it while others have tried and abandoned the style or haven’t even given it a shot. It’s certainly an intriguing concept though.
Hopefully that clears up what the flipped classroom is, and in the near future, I’ll be dropping my own opinion of the flipped classroom in practice in a multi-part series titled “Not So Long Ago,” a series in which I’ll look at new styles of teaching or technologies from the eyes of someone who was a student not so long ago. Keep an eye out for Part I!
What do you guys think about the flipped classroom? Know any teachers who have tried it or have you experienced it yourself? Tell us your stories below, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter!
Image courtesy of stock.xchng.
Share this Post!
About Chris Willis | Follow @ENA_Chris
Chris is currently ENA’s Social Media and Event Marketing Specialist, and he’s been with ENA since May of 2012. Prior to that, he was a student at MTSU studying English. He’s written numerous screenplays, and has turned many of them into films made with colleague Jordan Bennett. When he’s not writing for pleasure or ENA, he finds himself in a number of roles. Sometimes he’s a bass player in a local rock band. Other times he’s a rock climber you can find at Climb Nashville. If he isn’t in any of those roles though, he’s probably driving a race car somewhere. Oh, yeah. Did I forget to mention he’s been a race car driver for nearly a decade? ENA employees are anything but ordinary and boring.
Stay Connected.
