#flipclass diary: a form-follows-function story. Abstract: Flipped Classrooms rock.Been taking a week or so off of the blog to finish a #BYOT book chapter with @40ishoracle, get the debate tournament season started and teach a class. It is that class that i wanted to write about today...more of a gush than a rant, so pull out the handkerchiefs, i may get sappy...nah.
Have you had the student who sits in your class bored over the lecture because they already know the material (and you know that they know)? Have you, at the same time, attempted to teach other students who struggle with the material because they have no frame of reference in which it makes sense? Felt hampered by the sheer amount of material you had to cover to get students ready to do an activity? This was my experience as I prepared to teach a revised computer science curriculum that would emphasize the skills and characteristics of a “Digital Citizen” and de-emphasize the push-button Microsoft curriculum. . * Classtime is in green. #flipclass diary: a form-follows-function story. Flipping my Spanish Classroom. Attempting to Teach Digital Citizens about PLNs, Teaching the (non)Controversy part III. This was originally going to be a blog about how kids communicate based on my reflections of the last two weeks of the #BYOTchat (Thursdays 9pm...where all the cool educators hangout).
I was going to talk about the increase in students using twitter over facebook. How a huge factor in this seems to be the adoption of facebook by the students' parents. This was going to branch into a decision making matrix about distinguishing when we are trying to reach out to kids (in which case, be where they are) from when we are teaching kids to be attentive to their communications responsibilities (in which case, set the expectation and don't coddle). I would have concluded with some tangent about developing social media policies for schools that respects the privacy of teachers but encourages interaction with students. This will not be that blog. Teaching the (non)Controversy, Revisited Note: this is part three, but can be read without the other two. [Interlude One] [End Interlude] [Interlude Two] In Memoriam: Google Reader -- Why This Matters to Digital Citizenship. Note: The top half of this will be about Google Reader -- the best product that few people new about.
Feel free to ignore it. The bottom half will tie this product and the philosophy behind it to Digital Citizenship and Information Literacy. If you are a non-tech Educator, skip to the picture of the three girls. So Long and Thx for all the Well-Organized, Pre-Selected Push News If you were reading any blogs about...well almost anything or on social media...just about any of them. You probably heard that, as part of its Spring Cleaning Project, Google was putting the nail in the coffin of a service called Google Reader. The reason that the cry was so loud, in part, is because so many of the non-traditional news sources (blogs, website reporters, active tweeters, etc.) used Google Reader on a daily (and in some cases hourly) basis. What is Google Reader? The reason the reader was so popular was because it did what it was designed to do very well. Why Shut It Down? From Hitler: What? 1. 2. BYOT101 - A Photo Series. Confessions of a Jesuit School CIO. MusicProfessor - About.
The Counter Cultural -- and Counter-Intuitive Response -- to Gadget Overload (A Rant) "Now think of yourself as a battery. You really are, you know. Your brain runs on chemically converted electrical current...Okay, the point is this: everything you think, everything you do, it all has to run off the battery. Like the accessories in a car... Watching TV, reading books, talking with friends, eating a big dinner...all of it runs off the battery. A normal life -- at least in what used to be Western civilization -- was like running a car with power windows, power brakes, power seats, all the goodies. But the more goodies you have, the less the battery can charge. -- Glen Redman, The Stand by Stephen King (1989 or earlier) Before we talk of human beings and batteries and how the comments of a mid-level character in a 25+ year old book got me motivated to write this blog entry, a preface in three parts: 2 vignettes and a little jesuitical context: Vignette #1: My wife and I are members of "Koko's Kittens" -- geeks who have been on BOTH of Jonathan Coulton's jococruisecrazy.
Jdferries : @guster4lovers we run hashtag... Photo by jdferries. #Flipclass in an Ignatian Context. Last week, the @40ishoracle and I along with two teachers got to visit one of our fellow Jesuit schools to talk about creating #edtech friendly environments. The keynote was a hybrid of our "Why we went BYOT" combined with a lot of the reflections from last week's blogpost "10 Rules for an #Edtech Department" One of the breakout sessions that I was asked to give was on the flipped classroom.
I will expand the presentation a little more this week (fill in some of the words that I used), but I have had some requests to post the slides, so here you go. The presentation was a lightning round break-out (20 minutes total with at least 5 minutes reserved for questions), so the focus of the presentation is the reason to consider #flipclass in a Jesuit school -- namely, how does #flipclass support the Jesuit mission of education. Elements of Jesuit/Ignatian Pedagogy that I focused on were: More later... Note: Information in Pink-Boxes is an attempt to capture the spoken content.
Getting Started with Webpages and Blogs part 1: Google Sites. Practically Applied: A Month of Creation in #digcit. One of the struggles that I have had teaching computer classes and even adult professional development over the years is the artificial nature of the exercise. While there are a few notable exceptions and tried & true lessons, the teaching of computers is typically taught as a series of artificial "problems" and walk-through solutions. Students for the most part recognize this and go through the motions to a greater or lesser extent depending on how much they value their grades.
Thus, when we decided to recast the curriculum for Computer Applications as a course in Digital Citizenship (#digccit) based heavily on the ISTE National Education Technology Standards for Students, one of our implicit goals was to make the student experience more real and more relevant. Context: Brebeuf Jesuit runs a modified-modular schedule. The course has built-in discussion time where students bring in articles on technology trends, news, or events that they have discovered and share with the class. Jdferries : #digcit layout Spring13. More... On stopwatches, Fairness & Testscores: We Trained Them Well. Student: "Can you just give me the 'book' answer? " Me: "We don't use a book in this class" Student: "You are exasperating.
" The @40ishoracle and I have had an running theme for the last few weeks. My approach from the student perspective and hers from the teachers. We have decided to write duelling blogs on the topic of "We have trained them well. " Vignette 1: Missed Opportunities I want to start with one of my favorite teachers. During lunch one day, he described a day in his classroom. Vignette 2: Claim Analysis Project One of the primary skills in the Digital Citizenship class (#digcit) is the development of information analysis skills. Assignment: Students took two articles from the first issue of the student newspaper: one news, one op-ed.
Do you believe the information given in the article? Students were then put into groups of three to share their reflections. One group, the most vocal and active, sat in a straight line. "Did you believe what is being stated in the article? " "Ok. Flipped Learning. The Great Interactive Whiteboard Swindle…a 70s themed post! I was watching a TV series set in the 1970s during the week.
My wife and I marveled at the different sets that had been recreated perfectly to reflect the 70s. We openly wondered at how long it must have taken producers to search the suburbs for houses that hadn’t been renovated inside for 40 years. These houses were a wonderful glimpse into the past, complete with 70s fittings, wallpaper and tiles. The show then moved to a series of scenes set in a High School. All of a sudden, the 70s didn’t seem that long ago. The school the producers chose for the show was one of many that they could quite easily walk into, make very minimal changes to the odd chair and table, and bam: its a 70s school again!
An observer on Twitter noticed the same thing, making a comment that it was a sad sign of our public schools that the school in this TV series that was set in the 70s was virtually unchanged to what he knew it looked like in everyday life in 2012. It is happening, but slowly and inconsistently. Dreaming Big: The Software I need for my "flipping" classroom. This one has been brewing in my head for awhile which means that it will probably go long, but i think the time has come for educators to start laying out what is necessary to take classrooms from analog to digital...the legislators had their chance and they give us contradictions like creativity-through-standardized-testing. In the spirit of the season, Bah Humbug.Context: One of the best presentations I saw this year at ICE (Indiana Computer Educators) was a session on FLIPPED CLASSROOMS put on byTroy Cockrum (@tcockrum), Brian Bennett, and Brett Clark (@Mr_Brett_Clark).
In this session, they outlined a simple method of teaching that could be considered innovative in some ways and a refinement of good teaching practices in others. Rather than going into details on “what is a flipped classroom” I will refer you to the livebinder @40ishoracle and I have been sending people to this year, my pearltree on the topic or suggest you follow @jonbergmann. My dream software. Flipped Learning #010: Digital Citizenship and the Flipped Class with JD Ferries-Rowe. Flipped Learning #010: Digital Citizenship and the Flipped Class with JD Ferries-Rowe Hide Player This week on the Flipped Learning Network Show: Troy interviewed JD Ferries-Rowe Chief Information Officer at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis, Ind.
JD flips a Digital Citizenship class for high school Freshman. He and Troy discuss how flipping helps digital citizenship and creating a reflective student culture. You can find JD’s blog at You can also catch up on a lot of resources from the Flipped Learning Network by going to www.flippedlearning.org. Follow JD on Twitter Follow Troy on Twitter Leave us some feedback! Contact us with any questions or comments- flippedlearning@edreach.us 187 views, 4 today What do you think? Photo by jdferries. Reading at Home Discussing in Class Part II. I consistently hear Flipped Class speakers, presenters, proponents, and even some opponents make the statement, "English teachers have flipped for years. They have students read at home and then they discuss in class. " I blogged on this last October, but recent events have compelled me to blog again. My previous blog post convinced some to stop using that example. However, at ISTE and the Flipcon, I heard it more often in a few presentations and discussions on Flipped Class.
I am bothered by that assertation because I believe it doesn't fit the core basis of what is a flipped classroom. 1) Reading at home is usually not a lower level processing skill. 2) Discussion isn't individualized instruction. Here's an example: I use Lord of the Flies to teach about symbolism. I suppose one could argue that reading at home is creating a desire for the tools necessary for understanding and the discussion is the application of that understanding. Why does this matter? I'd love to hear your opinion. Podcasts - Flipped Learning Network Podcast by Unknown.