The flipped classroom

The concept of the 'flipped classroom' has been gaining currency in education circles recently - the video below provide a useful introduction to the key ideas for those who aren't familiar with the term. Key ideas that are important to our thinking about how the environment contributes to modern learning practice are...

• rethinking of time and space - escaping the constraints of the 9-3, classroom-based view of learning - embracing home-school continuity in learning
• rethinking the classroom as a presentation space - and rethinking the use of face-to-face time in the classroom

Click here for the video explaining the key ideas of a flipped classroom

Learning from the classroom experience

The video below was taken at Breens Intermediate in Christchurch, and features interviews with teachers about the benefits they see of using digital technologies in a modern learning environment. 

• As you watch the video, make a note of the benefits they identify.
• How do the examples they give illustrate any of the points that Fullan discusses in the previous video?

Click here for the video

Technology, the new pedagogy and flipped teaching

In the video below Michael Fullan describes some of the principles of what he calls the New Pedagogies, and challenges us to consider how, as we go deeper into learning can technology accelerate the quality of learning?

The video is just over seven minutes long, but is broken down into several sections which may make it easier to 'digest' and reflect on the key points made. 

As you watch the video, consider how you'd respond to the questions he asks at the beginning:

• how does the learning become irresistibly engaging?
• how does it get used so it doesn't get too complicated?
• how do you use technology 24/7?
• how do you do learning that is steeped in real life problem solving?

Consider your responses in relation to what you're currently doing in your own teaching situation

Here is the video

Resources available to teachers

Learn:

Resources that provide us with access to existing knowledge, including:

• Games
• Ebooks
• Encyclopedias
• Forums and FAQs
• Curriculum-specifc resources (e.g. Mathletics) 
   

Create

Resources that let us express our knowledge in different and creative ways, including:

• Music makers (e.g. iTunes, Audacity)
• Video creation (e.g. Movie Maker, iMovie)
• Design (e.g. Sketchup,
• Comics (e.g. Comic Life)
• Construction (e.g. Scratch, Minecraft)

Share

Resources that allow us to share our knowledge with others, sometimes as a presentation, but often with the capacity for feedback and interaction, including:

• Presentation tools  (e.g. Prezi, Google slides)
• Communications tools (Skype,  Video conferencing)
• Blogging tools (e.g. Blogger,  Wordpress)

Check

Resources that provide learners with the opportunity to check on ‘how an I going’, often referred to as assessment tools, but focusing particularly on formative assessment strategies where the learning and assessment are interwoven, including:

• Portfolio tools (e.g. MyPortfolio)
• Quizzes (e.g. Make-a-quiz, OnlineQuizCreator)
• Rubric creators (e.g. Rubistar)

The Role of the teacher

Tony Ryan believes that in the future, who we are as educators will be more important than what we teach. In this EDtalk Tony outlines his four 'E's: teachers who are energisers, ethicists, entrepreneurs, and environmentalists. (Duration: 7.55)

As you watch this clip consider...

1. Which of the four "E's" do you feel are strengths your approach to teaching?
2. Are there any that don't? What could you do to develop these capabilities?
3. Do you agree with his basic tenet that how we teach is more important than what we teach? 
4. If not why, and if so, where is the evidence in how you currently teach?

Click here for the video

Learning to learn

 In the video below Guy Claxton explains that learning to learn is a deep seated attitude to your own mind. He explores the difference between expecting that our ability to learn is fixed, rather than being able to grow our capacity to learn.

As you view this clip, consider the following...

1. What are you doing to 'stretch your student's ability to think?" in your programmes?
2. What is the crucial shift he considers important for teachers to make?
3. What is the place of 'essential' or 'core' knowledge in the type of curriculum approach Guy speaks of?

Click here for Video

Digital Technologies

 Modern learning practice with digital technologies

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There are a number of ways that digital technologies are being  used to support modern learning. The links below are provided to give you the opportunity to become familiar with some of them...

• Flipped classroom - a pedagogical model in which the typical classroom-based instruction and homework elements of a programme are reversed. This Edutopia resource provides numerous links to articles and videos that illustrate how this is changing the nature of practice in traditional classrooms.

• BYOD (bring your own device) - Hundreds of schools across NZ have implemented "bring your own device" (BYOD) strategies, where students are either told or allowed to bring electronic devices such as iPads or laptops to assist their learning. The BYOD group on the VLN is a useful place to find what other teachers in NZ are doing, and to access the policies and planning ideas they are using and sharing. 

• Differentiated learning - one of key ways that digital technologies have impacted modern classrooms is the realisation of enabling learners to learn at their own pace, following their own interests, with resources pitched at their own level. This approach is broadly referred to as differentiated learning, and while the principles behind it have been around for a long time in education, digital technologies are making it actually happen in more ways than before. 

• Enabling e-Learning - The Enabling e-Learning website brings together relevant information, resources, and communities to support teachers and schools in developing their e-learning practice.

• New tools for existing activities - you don't have to look too far on the web to find a plethora of digital tools that allow students to do in new and creative ways many of the things that have been done in traditional pen and paper form. Thissimple chart illustrates the variety of tools that are available, matching them against the sorts of learning activities that will be familiar to most teachers.
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This collection of resources gives teachers a chance to explore the different ways schools are using digital technologies.