If you haven't tried the flipped classroom, maybe it's time.
What is the flipped classroom?
In the traditional classroom model, teachers present new topics and concepts in class followed by guided practice that takes place at home. In a flipped classroom, the students watch a video (that the teacher makes) at home introducing new concepts and ideas followed by a classroom lesson that focuses on developing the understanding of those concepts and ideas.
Why flip?
Flipping Methods I've Tried
I've been training teachers in my school district how to create a flipped classroom video for 3 years. Since I work for a school system that has invested in interactive whiteboards (SMART and Promethean) in most every classroom, I began training teachers to use Smart Notebook's and Active Inspire's built-in screen recorder. Teachers would present their lesson on their IWB with the screen recorder on and record their voice using a wireless headset. Every click, every open window, every mark of annotation was included in their video, along with their personal narration. The teacher wasn't in site, but their presentation was, along with their voice. Once the teacher finishes the video, they upload it to a place like Youtube and then share their video's weblink with their students. Below is one of Natalie Parker's flipped videos. I didn't actually teacher Natalie how to create flipped videos though, I must confess. I just presented her with the idea and she ran with it. Natalie is a superstar math teacher and uses Smart Notebook and its screen recorder to create her presentation and to produce the video.
What is the flipped classroom?
In the traditional classroom model, teachers present new topics and concepts in class followed by guided practice that takes place at home. In a flipped classroom, the students watch a video (that the teacher makes) at home introducing new concepts and ideas followed by a classroom lesson that focuses on developing the understanding of those concepts and ideas.
Why flip?
- Flipping your class provides more face-to-face time with each of your students where you can assess through conversation and observation, their understanding and mastery of the topic. You the expert are there to guide the development of concept understanding whereas before with the traditional classroom model, students' development of concept understanding took place primarily alone at home.
- Some students need to hear it and see it once and they're good-to-go. Others require more auditory and visual repetition before a concept gels. The flipped classroom lets students listen and watch the video lesson as many times as they need to. And the teacher can choose to make the videos available all year which comes in handy when reviewing for EOY assessments.
- One of the most taxing parts in a teacher's day is trying to keep everyone's attention so to deliver new concepts and information. The energy it takes to get all students seated, silent, and focused....ALL at the same time is rivaled only by a mother trying to manage her newly-born octuplets. With the flipped classroom, students watch and receive new concepts and information via flipped videos on their time, without the distraction of their classmates and you the teacher have less discipline problems as a result.
- No two learners are the same which makes differentiating your classroom a must. Traditional classrooms don't allow for teachers to get a true pulse of EACH INDIVIDUAL'S level of understanding. With the flipped teaching model, you have more time to physically witness understanding and adjust the difficulty level when/where needed.
- Every teacher I talk to that flips their classroom reports that the "rat race" feeling they had before is gone! They all claim that they have more time than ever before. More time with their students to practice and make concrete the concepts and ideas means higher student achievement and less stress for everyone.
- Broaden your focus. the videos you produce are filled with valuable information explained expertly by you...an expert. It's a shame to make available all that you offer only to those enrolled in your class. Flipped videos can be posted publicly so that everyone can benefit from your skill in conveying knowledge and information. Just think...your voice might be the key to unlocking the confusion for a student struggling with the concept of balancing chemical equations or solving logarithmic equation or identifying the rhyme and meter in a piece of poetry. What you offer is priceless. Share it with everyone!
Flipping Methods I've Tried
I've been training teachers in my school district how to create a flipped classroom video for 3 years. Since I work for a school system that has invested in interactive whiteboards (SMART and Promethean) in most every classroom, I began training teachers to use Smart Notebook's and Active Inspire's built-in screen recorder. Teachers would present their lesson on their IWB with the screen recorder on and record their voice using a wireless headset. Every click, every open window, every mark of annotation was included in their video, along with their personal narration. The teacher wasn't in site, but their presentation was, along with their voice. Once the teacher finishes the video, they upload it to a place like Youtube and then share their video's weblink with their students. Below is one of Natalie Parker's flipped videos. I didn't actually teacher Natalie how to create flipped videos though, I must confess. I just presented her with the idea and she ran with it. Natalie is a superstar math teacher and uses Smart Notebook and its screen recorder to create her presentation and to produce the video.
Since I started promoting the flipped classroom model, lots of new tools have been created that educators can use to create informational or flipped videos for their students.
One example is Knowmia. Knowmia is a free service that stores educator-created videos for all the world to learn from and offers a Knowmia Teach app for iPads used to create informational/flipped videos. Knowmia also lets you create interactive video assignments that blend teacher-created informational/flipped videos with formative assessment questions. These Knowmia assignments are wonderful because they incorporate all the benefits of a flipped video with the ability to assess student understanding of the video in real-time. And once a student has viewed and completed the build-in questions, a report is sent to the teacher providing valuable data. Below is a sample video I created using Knowmia's Teach app:
One example is Knowmia. Knowmia is a free service that stores educator-created videos for all the world to learn from and offers a Knowmia Teach app for iPads used to create informational/flipped videos. Knowmia also lets you create interactive video assignments that blend teacher-created informational/flipped videos with formative assessment questions. These Knowmia assignments are wonderful because they incorporate all the benefits of a flipped video with the ability to assess student understanding of the video in real-time. And once a student has viewed and completed the build-in questions, a report is sent to the teacher providing valuable data. Below is a sample video I created using Knowmia's Teach app:
Another tool to create flipped videos is Microsoft Office Mix which is a wonderful option if you regularly use PowerPoint presentations when you teach. Mix is actually just a free download to Microsoft PowerPoint that lets you turn an ordinary powerpoint presentation into an interactive flipped video. After downloading Mix, MS PowerPoint will have a new Mix tab in its list of menu options. So if you open a preexisting PowerPoint and use the tools in the Mix tab, you can turn your powerpoint into a narrated and annotated video that can include you in view as well (if you have a webcam). But here's the thing, your video isn't just a video. It's an interactive video presentation! The Mix tab not only offers video production features but also allows you to add assessment questions to your video, similar to Knowmia. And, similar to Knowmia, when students view and complete an interactive Mix video, the results are stored on the teacher's online Office Mix account to be used later for data-driven decision-making. Below is a sample interactive Mix video I created using a PowerPoint video I found online. Check out my cool headset (Not!):
Another tool for flipped video productions is Movenote.com. Movenote is a free web-based application that lets you create voice-over video presentations including annotation on PDFs, PowerPoints and other documents or just annotate on a whiteboard. It also displays you, the presenter (if you have a webcam)
A nice app that can be used to produce flipped videos is Explain Everything. Explain Everything is a free screen-casting interactive whiteboard tool that lets you narrate, annote, include precreated documents, presentations, and videos within the video and export your finished video for student access.
Keys To Flipping
When I'm offering training on the flipped classroom model to a group of educators, I always share my 3 Rules.
When I'm offering training on the flipped classroom model to a group of educators, I always share my 3 Rules.
- Keep it short! Flipped videos should be between 3-12 minutes long. That's it. Which leads me to a misnomer many educators have regarding the switch to the flipped classroom. They feel like it'll take a long time to create their videos and upload them for student access. They feel like since it takes 50 minutes of classtime to teach a concept the traditional way, it'll take 50 minutes or more to make the video. What they don't realize is when you make a video, you're not being interrupted with questions or classroom management issues and you can talk as quickly as you like. What normally takes 50 minutes to present to a class using traditional methods can be condensed into a 9 minute flipped video. It may take a bit longer the first attempt since you're not comfortable with the process, but once you've got it down, it's a snap!
- Make it entertaining and interactive! Within the video, prompt students to take notes or work out the problem with you. This will keep them engaged while watching the video and will also provide proof to you that they watched the video.
- Never reteach the video!!! If, for whatever reason the majority of your class doesn't do their video-watching homework, have a plan to correct the behavior but under no circumstances should you reteach the lesson. Switching from traditional to flipped will be a transition for the students. Training and conditioning them to your new expectations may take a little time but hold fast and I guarantee they'll rise to your expectations!