Comments on: Everybody’s Doing the Flip

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:29:49 +0000

Dan,
A few years back, I taught with an art teacher that has since retired. She video taped herself teaching lessons and then had the children watch the video while she walked around the room and helped them with each new project. While a bit different than flipping the classroom, she found a way to free herself to attend to the kids who needed the most help in the moment. The outcome, I think, was similar. She had more time to focus on the individual needs of her students. I am excited to see what the next generation of teachers will teach us old dogs.

In my own teaching, I am using youtube to give my kids variable practice ideas for upper-body and core strength that they can do at home. The percentages of kids hitting our district benchmarks for both are excellent.

Greg Thompson
Physical Educator- Farmington Public Schools, MI

By: Daisy

Daisy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:55:33 +0000

This is the first time I’ve heard of flipping… would like to see more ‘teachers’/schools implement this. It’s very Pro Active

plus.. more students will be getting better grades for getting the homework done and turning it in on time~

By: djcoyle

djcoyle — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:14:33 +0000

Hi Ricardo, Great point on case studies and biz schools. How silly would it be if students used class time to read the case for the first time? Yet that’s what’s happening in some places. Shoot, that’s what happened in most of my classes in high school and college!

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:32:33 +0000

isn’t it like the case-study method used in many business schools? You prepare the cases at home and discuss them in the classroom guided by the professor.
I agree these methods help students to, at least, develop a more proactive mind-set; get used to prepare themselves in advance, learn to listen to others, be openminded to different options and participate in the discussions.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:03:50 +0000

Great article! ArtistWorks has been “flipping the music stand” for a few years now with our online music schools much as you describe, but with a twist. Each school is taught by a master musician, and subscribing students have access to a comprehensive video lesson library curriculum. The twist is that they can submit practice videos to their teacher and receive a video response with constructive feedback on how to progress. Both the student and teacher’s video are paired together for the online community to view and learn from. Everyone learns from each other this way, because the advice the teacher gives the student will also benefit the other students viewing the Video Exchange. We are firmly convinced this is the future of education, and a much more effective use of a teacher’s time.

By: Antony Lewis

Antony Lewis — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:11:31 +0000

I think that the flip method of teaching is another useful teaching strategy (which can be used effectively in combination with other methods). However, to view the flip method as a panacea/solution to all learning – is a mistaken view (in my own opinion).

Why? First, I am a High School Mathematics Teacher (just making my background clear). I would love to prepare videos for all of my students, so that they could watch them at home etc. However, as all of you teachers know – we don’t have the time to prepare videos like this, even though I would love to (and have thought of doing this many times – but just don’t have enough hours in the day). Accordingly, videos like those prepared by the Khan Academy are incredibly useful (in their place) as he explores concepts from a more intuitive and deeper level (at least in Mathematics). They are an incredible resource – if you haven’t used them already – you really should, I highly recommend them

Nevertheless, I would argue (from my experience) that getting the majority of students in an average class to watch them at home in their own time is going to be extremely difficult (as it is extremely difficult to get them to do anything in their own time re schoolwork). In my mind, it is a concept which can be used sparingly to good effect, but not something which can be feasibly expected of students every day in your standard class.

Nevertheless, I would also argue that they would be most effective in honours/extended classes where students are passionate about learning that particular subject – and wouldn’t even think twice about watching a video which would help them obtain an even deeper understanding of the concepts and connections involved! I have a class or two like that – and think I could definitely use them quite effectively (more often with them).

Thanks for posting this article for everyone, greatly appreciated

By: liz garnett

liz garnett — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:08:23 +0000

Interesting this idea that video is the appropriate medium for delivery material for individual absorption and reflection. Video is great for communicating visual content of course (and there are some fabulous educational videos out there these days, e.g. http://www.artsjournal.com/gap/2011/08/playground-bullies-musician-edition.html), but for reviewing/cogitating, the printed word is much more effective. It’s much more flexible for adjusting pace of delivery and repetition to your speed of comprehension. Easier to put a question-mark in the margin to remind you which bit to ask your teacher about.

Straight lectures on video have the problem that they can’t adjust to the needs of the listeners. If you are talking to a group in person you can see in their eyes when they’re excited, when they’re lost, when they’re with you but having to pedal hard to keep up. The reason why face-to-face lectures have any value is the same reason why getting-your-hands-mucky sessions are valuable – the teacher can adjust to the learners in real time.

Not arguing with the basic premise that active learning is better than passive learning. Just pointing out that replacing a teacher’s explanation with a video of a teacher’s explanation is unhelpfully simplistic. Use video as a medium in its own right, and encourage reading as a way to access and reflect upon knowledge.

By: Tony DeMeo

Tony DeMeo — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:52:46 +0000

Daniel,
As a football coach for over 35 years – I always did exactly what your thoughts were. I sent the Quarterbacks their Quarterback Syllabus to them at the beginning of the summer so they would know every part of their plays prior to the start of practice. Thus their practice time was purely about execution.I also used my own version of “deep practice” & actually found a way to quantify it.

By: Amor Vieira

Amor Vieira — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:55:03 +0000

Lisa may be looking at it from a Primary school perspective. I agree that children should have time off, but some of the independent tasks and preparatory reading can also be done in classrooms using school computers. The great advantage of having guidance notes, powerpoints, etc on the web is that students will be looking at them when they feel they need to check or learn something. Personalised learning or what?

By: Rob Weddell

Rob Weddell — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:03:58 +0000

I see great value in creating “hands on” learning. I believe good educators are already engage students in learning by making it meaningful to the individual. Bottom line is if the learner cannot see the value in the learning subject then there is a lack of motivation to learn. I am infavour of an active/ problem solving classroom that empowers the learner but I would agree with Lisa that we do not need more homework for our students, and especially sendentary homework that promotes screening time over physical activity, play, and family time. Traditional lecture styles needs to change but I am not sure Flipping has totally nailed it. Cheers!