Flipping Out!

Before class today, Team! asked the class to review a narrated PowerPoint about flipping the classroom. They then started with an activity for the class to open our blogs and type a sentence or two about how we would define flipping the classroom. After about a minute, they asked us to pair up with another person to discuss what we wrote. Next, they asked the whole class to share.

Some of the things that came up:

• Takes the homework out of the home and puts it into the classroom. 
• Some disciplines may already be doing this, such as in literature. Students have to prepare for discussion and activities. 
• Some traditional faculty may feel that they have to sacrifice content coverage for "active" learning. 
• There may be a disconnect with some people regarding what the activities can be. 

The next activity was a small group discussion, with a member of Team! facilitating each small group's discussion. As I looked on, it appeared that everyone was participating and contributing to the conversation. There were four prompts: challenges, benefits, assessing the success of flipping, examples in different disciplines. Some ideas that came up...

• Getting students to do the work at home - there must be incentive.
• Students may be more likely to watch a video than do reading. Although, an actual assignment that will be handed in has a grade. Or they may "watch" the video at the same time they are doing other things. 
• It is important to continue to assign critical reading.
• This is not necessarily a revolutionary idea, just repackaged and branded.
• Flipping may not be appropriate for all topics.
• One example was for a research methods course - students work in groups to create a moderator's guide for a focus group. 
• Another example is a public speaking class - allowing more time in class to practice speaking. 

The final activity was back to blogging - we were told to respond to the original blog post with reactions and additional reflections.

Great job, Team!