a teachers thoughts on flipped learning

Rob Kamrowski

Welcome to this multi-touch book

Welcome to this interactive book. It is much different than any book you have read before. In order to make your experi-ence optimal, I have included icons to point out interactive fea-tures and a guide to explain their meaning. I hope you enjoy the experience.

Tapping the plus icon will increase the size of a photo or re-veal more information about a photo or interactive feature.

Tapping the play icon will launch an interactive, video, or audio feature.

Tapping the side note icon will launch a window that will en-tail a question, pose a thought or just an aside.

While the iBook format allows for all media to be accessed without the internet, in order to keep the file size manageable, media has been inserted that will require the internet. Look for this symbol to alert you of such media. Unfortunately, this means that some videos and links will take sometime to load while other may eventually be taken down by the owner and not work. I apologize if this happens but will try to stay on top of it to avoid the frustration.

Links will be highlighted in this color and will also require internet access. Occasionally, you will see words that are highlighted in this color and formatted in this style. These are simply points I felt needed extra emphasis.

Finally, this iBook is my very own experiment of a flipped ac-tivity. Therefore, at the end of Part two, three, four, and five I have included interactive elements to highlight the main ideas of the part and allow for review and reflection. They will be noted with the above icon. Please try these learning activities and let me know if you find them valuable.

Welcome to this Multi-Touch Book

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Flip Learning:What is it?

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I Am No ExpertI have been teaching for roughly ten years and I have come upon no quality teacher who believes they are an expert. In-stead, I have observed experimenters--teachers who con-stantly change, shift, and try new things to improve their craft. I respect experimenters. They are never satisfied with the status quo. They always seek to improve--themselves and those around them. They look to the future and, rather than wonder what kind of future we will live in, they ponder what kind of future they can make.

The Pilot ProgramIt was with the inspiration of these teachers that I decided to try a new approach to education in my classroom in 2012-2013. During the last two quarters of the school year I imple-mented a version of what has become known as the flipped model of teaching in my classroom. I did my research, I wrote up a proposal, and away I went. The purpose was three fold:

1. Pilot a one to one classroom in which the school gave every student an iPad Mini.

2. Establish a workflow for a blended classroom in which re-sources and activities were done online as well as in the classroom.

and

3. Test the flipped model of teaching as a method that would have students achieve a level of mastery of lower level con-

tent and be exposed to more higher level thinking, as de-fined by Blooms Taxonomy, than previously done within the classroom.

Purpose of this BookThe role of this book is to share the insight, tools, and analysis from this experiment in hopes that it may be of value as the one to one program is implemented within my school district. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, I hope it serves as a catalyst to continue my experimentation and perhaps spark all you experimenters to share so we can learn from you.

The FutureThe world is a much different place today than when I was in primary and secondary school. Change is happening at a rapid pace and in the field of education we need to feel com-fortable to experiment and develop the best possible educa-tional experience for our students to be successful in the fu-ture. We do not know what the future will entail for current and upcoming generations of primary and secondary students--but we do know that it will be much different than now.

If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow -John Dewey

Lets Get Something Straight

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Lets Get Something Straight

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Flip Learning:What is it?

2

Flipping the classroom is a pedagogy that has become very popular over the past few years and been discussed and defined by many different characters. Thus, the defi-nition has been muddled from its original form and has even lead to some controversy among teachers. Due to this lack of clarity, debate of the usefulness of the method has resulted. Therefore, it is important to take in the whole realm of views and methods that are classified un-der the title Flipped Learning.

The Technical DefinitionThe two teachers who coined the term and have made it into the popular model it is today are Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams. They taught high school science courses in Colorado and wrote the book titled: Flip Your Classroom--Reach every student in every class every day and recently released Flipped Learn-ing: Gateway to Student Engagement.. They define flip learn-ing as "...that which is traditionally done in the class is now done at home, and that which is traditionally done as home-work is now completed in class." This definition has been morphed into video recording lectures, assigning these as homework, and using class time for higher order thinking ac-tivities as defined by bloom's taxonomy. And, for the most part, this is what Bergmann and Sams did. They have since

explained that flipped learning can mean many different things and is an evolutionary process Recently, they have issued a more solid definition to try to clear up misconcep-tions.

Variations of the Technical DefinitionI feel it important to recognize that the method does not have to be mired in technology and video recordings.. There are many variations of flip teaching/learning and teachers should be encouraged to experiment. The model does not need to be implemented every day and in every lesson. It should only be

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Flip Learning: What is it?

used when and where appropriate. In fact, Bergmann and Sams discuss in their book the different approaches they took year after year. They did not create one formula to fit every need. Sams said he wanted to be available to help his students when they got stuck. The rest of the content could be learned on their own time--he didn't need to have his students listen to him yak during class time.

Therefore, Sams and other flip teachers, when preparing a les-son, ask two questions to decide if something should be rele-gated to be worked on at home or worked on in school: 1. Do I need to be there for students to do this? and 2. Is this the best use of my limited time with students? If the answers to those questions is no, then flip it! Record it, post content to a website, or create an interactive activity that can be done individually--whatever the task might be, it can be done somewhere other than during your face to face time. The classroom should be where students have access to you, the teacher, and your expertise. And this fact should be kept sacred. Too many definitions have focused on implementing the homework side of the equation and not the classroom side.

For the Sake of this BookFor the sake of this book, Flip Learning is an activity that can be done effectively outside of a teachers di-rection allowing a gain of time for activities that re-

quire a teachers expertise. This is hardly a radical idea. Indeed, teachers have been assigning activi-ties outside the classroom since one room school houses dotted the countryside. So whats the big deal? Why has this become a controversial method? In a word--Technology! The use of technology has made it possible for teachers to take ele-ments out of their classroom, that for some, have been the core methods of how they teach. While this can be frightening, it shouldnt be. Indeed, it can be liberating. In part 3, I explain my top ten reasons for incorporating some flip learning ideas into your classroom.

Flip Learning: What is it?

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Part 2 Learning Activity: Answer the Questions

Flip Learning:Why? My Top 10

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Reason #10: We Can!I know this is not a pedagogical reason, but it is worth men-tioning. Twenty years ago it would have been virtually impos-sible for a teacher to record a lecture or create animations that every student in their classroom could access, 24 hours a day for seven days a week, and use as a learning tool. Okay, so it was possiblebut unthinkable. It was expensive, skill inten-sive, and time consum-ing to do well. In our current world, my four year old son can re-cord video, take pic-tures, and find videos on the computer. Honestly, tools, skills, and time are no longer a reason not to record lec-tures or make our own interactive con-tent. It requires a change in workflow and more work on the front end. This is true of any pedagogical change one would implement in their class. You will find more information about this in Part 4 of this book.

The fact that this technology has become so accessible has changed the very world we live in--including the nature of edu-cation.

Reason# 9: Content is EverywhereThe content of our subjects should not and cannot be the fo-cus of our classroom. Wow! As a Social Studies teacher that was a hard statement to make--but, it's true. When I was go-

ing to school information was powerand it was limited. It existed in three locations: a library, the television, or teach-ers. Of course, times have changed and this is no longer the case. I came upon this realization in late 2012 when my prin-cipal asked a small group of us to listen to the CESA technol-ogy director and distance learning coordinator discuss re-cording lectures and making them available for students. Ini-tially, I was opposed to the idea. My concern was who owned the rights to my lectures (as if they were a product to be patented) and the possibility of administrators trying to reduce staff and increase class sizes through technology. I then went home and did a Google search on the lesson I was

preparing to teach in one of my classes and found numerous lectures on the topic. The truth is, people were already doing "my" lectures and posting them on the internet. Information is everywhere! We live in an information saturated world. Content is a vehicle to transport our students to un-derstand, analyze, and evaluate concepts and issues in the world they live in and then hopefully to create

Flip Learning: Why? My Top 10

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solutions, products, and relationship that improve their lives and those around them. Content is important and nec-essary. It is the building blocks for the higher level thinking we want students to do. It cannot, however, be the end goal of our les-sons. If lecture is the focus of the classroom students are not challenged to reach the higher levels of thinking. We should move away from what Paulo Freire calls the banking concept of education. Put your assessment through the Google challenge and see how it measures up on Blooms taxonomy.

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Reason #8: Play, Pause, RewindThere is no pedagogical reason for distributing information to a group of people once and expecting them to retain, understand, and evaluate the information. Everything in developmental psychology and neuroscience has led us to believe that repetition in-creases learning. Making content available for students through video allows students to play, pause, rewind and repeat the proc-ess as needed. Indeed, when I surveyed my students it was clear that they liked having this ability.

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Highlights from Student Surveys and Reflections

Reason #7: DifferentiateFlipped learning is differentiated learning. It is a method that ensures choice for students. By simply recording lectures that corresponded with readings that, in the past, I had assigned from the textbook (This is the very basic form of Flipped Learning) I provided different modalities for my students to acquire content. My students had the choice to watch my lec-ture, read the corresponding text, or do both. I also encour-aged them to look for other experts that may teach the content using a method more engaging or understandable than I. In the future, I intend to ask students to more actively find alter-native resources, share them with the class, and help me build a library of diverse content per topic.

In addition to diversifying content, flipped learning opens up class time for students to show their understanding in a method most conducive to their learning style. Ultimately, my plan is to design activities that will allow any student to be working on completely different content and activities at any one given time. Thus, allowing accelerated students to not be slowed down by students who are struggling and for slower students to not feel pressured to move ahead in the curricu-lum when not ready.

Reason #6: The WorldIt should be no surprise that the world has flipped learning. A fellow teacher informed me that he learned how to fold socks

properly by watching a video on YouTube (Yes, apparently there is a correct way to fold socks. In case you are are curi-ous). My wife learned how to cut our boys hair through

video. And, I learned how to use iBook Author pri-

marily by watching video tutorials. If

you search You-Tube for any do it yourself project most likely you will

find a video of a person instruct-

ing how to com-plete the project. Fur-

thermore, university instruc-tors are flipping learning (Yes, this is taking off in the Univer-sity of Wisconsin System), and since the beginning of re-corded video, the workforce has flipped learning to provide training for their workers. This is not a foreign concept and it would be a benefit to our students if we directed their atten-tion to the wealth of information available to them and how to use it to learn new information and skills. Sending our stu-dents to school after high school with no experience in Flipped Learning would be a disservice.


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Reason #5: Its a MirrorOne of the greatest aspects of the flipped learning process for me is the fact that it forces me to reflect and rethink how I am teaching. Before I post videos for students to watch, I would watch them myself. This simple process helped me to think about what was essential and how I could enhance the lecture and lesson so my students would under-stand the content. Furthermore, I have completely changed the view of my role as educator. With lecture out of the class-room, I have reflected on my role and, I believe, become more impactful. I now view myself as a designer of educational ex-periences rather than a source of knowledge. My primary role is creating experiences that encourage students to think deeper, own their education, and engage their curiosity. Knowledge is plentiful and I dont need to be the only source of knowledge for my students. Instead, I help them curate it, make sense of it, and apply it.

Reason #4: Make Them Own ItAs stated in reason #6, the world has flipped. There is more information available to students than ever in the history of mankind. Yet, I am amazed how often students and parents believe that the responsibility of educating is solely on the shoulders of teachers within the confines of the school day. Flipped learning puts the responsibility of education on the shoulders of the student and the teacher. When I experi-

mented with flipping in my history course I always had my stu-dents submit a reflection on what methods they chose to learn the material and what class activities helped them understand it more. By giving students options and making them reflect, they began to develop an awareness of how they learn best and their role in the learning process. It seemed like less focus was put on how, or what, the teacher taught but rather the choices the student made.


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Reason #3: EngagementThere are great lecturers in the world. People who know how to weave a good story into a lesson. People who can speak for an hour and hold the audience in the palm of their hand the entire time. This is not something everyone can do, and it is certainly not something anyone can do day after day. Our classrooms are less engaging when we fill them with lecture.

Brain research tells us that people are more engaged and more likely to retain, understand, and evaluate infor-mation when they are physically active, able to discuss/debate topics, and allowed to create meaningful prod-ucts using new skills and knowledge. Technology allows for the classroom to expand beyond the walls of a building. Learn-ing can happen anywhere, with anyone, at any time. Flipped learning allows us time to make these connections and have our student network with the real world. These activities engage.

Indeed, in my flipped classroom, time was freed up to focus more on these engaging activities. I did more simulations, debates, discus-sions, and projects than ever be-fore in my years of teaching this course. Yet, their scores on assess-ments indicated that their under-standing of the content was high and their unit reflections and sur-vey results show high levels of en-gagement.

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Donald Clark Speaks on the Use of Lecture

Reason #2: RelationshipsGreat educators develop meaningful relationships with their students. Indeed, this fact alone is evidence that online educa-tion could never do the job that on site educators do everyday. By exporting direct instruction to the digital world, or at least allowing students the option to obtain information you would offer with direct instruction through their own means, the time to simply connect with students on a daily basis and have personal conversations increase exponentially.

Reason #1: Keeping the Classroom Sa-credOnline education is on the rise. Technology has already al-tered the world in a dramatic way. The same will happen in education. Some critics of education in the United States have argued that students can be educated completely online--offering a cheaper and better alternative to brick and mortar schools. Virtual schools have been created with this line of thought. Other schools are using online tools to increase class sizes and reduce licensed teachers. These approaches are wrong and reckless. These approaches poison the opportunities that technology can offer within our schools. By flipping the learning of our stu-dents, I firmly believe we counter these approaches by show-ing that learning happens at a much deeper level within the

classroom. By flipping we are conceding that some learning (the lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy) can happen in a digital environment but the higher levels of learning require face to face time with a quality educator. Indeed, this is why our classrooms always have been and always should be sacred ground within education.


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Part 3 Learning Activity: Summarize Why Flip

Flip Learning:How?

4

A DisclaimerAs mentioned in part two, flip learning is not a silver bullet. It is not for everyone and it is not for every moment. It is a teaching method and philosophy to be implemented when ap-propriate. It is not as simple as making videos, or any digital content, and throwing them in cyberspace and assigning them for your students to consume. There are many elements that need to be in place before this be-comes a successful method in your classroom. All those things good teachers do, and believe, apply when using this

method. The flipped learning network has released a graphic of the four pillars of flipped learning to emphasize this point.

Step One: Prepare YourselfBefore you enter the world of flip teaching and learning you need to sufficiently prepare yourself. Make certain you under-stand the concept, have an appropriate reason for using the method, and can explain it to others. You may want to bone up more on the concept by looking at resources I have curated on the topic.

The most powerful aspect of the flip concept is the ability to create another dimension in your classroom. Essentially, you are able to clone yourself when and if the lesson deems it ap-propriate. Therefore, you want to sift through your current lessons and apply Blooms taxonomy to determine the level of cognitive activity involved in your lessons. If a lesson is on the

Flip Learning: How?

22

lower level of Blooms or is mostly direct instructionit most likely is appropriate to flip.

Step one, then, is to make certain you understand and explain why you are using the method and view or create your unit learning objectives, highlighting the pieces within your unit that may bode well for flipping.

Step Two: Ask Yourself Some QuestionsAsk yourself, how are you going to: 1.) assess if stu-dents did the work outside of the classroom (If you are assigning the work to be done outside of class) 2.) make certain students understood the flipped lesson, and 3.) increase the level of cognitive activity on Blooms Taxonomy in your classroom? If you were/are a big user of the lecture, number three may be the hardest question for you to answer.

In my classroom during the pilot program, I would always be-gan the class by allowing the students to ask me questions about the homework. Students would then take a quiz, using their notes, to as-sess if they had acquired the basic knowl-edge from the lesson (This would be the very bottom of Blooms taxonomy). We, as a class, would go over the quiz and clear up any misconcep-tions. The rest of the time was freed up for us to do all sorts of

activities that would fall under the upper levels of the taxon-omy. We researched, analyzed sources, did project based learning, played games and simulations, discussed, and de-bated.

I believe the focus must be on what happens in the classroom. Do not spend hours creating flipped lessons and then find yourself staring at a group of students who learned the basic content and are waiting for you to figure out how to make your face to face time valuable. The whole idea is to increase the quality of your face to face timeso that is where you should spend most of your time planning and preparing.

Step two is to create higher level thinking activities for your face to face time. You most likely will not be doing a great deal of direct instruction anymore. Make certain to ratchet up the expectations of your class according to Blooms taxonomy, add more relevancy, and more student centered activities. Take a look at my curated resources on project based learning and gamification for some ideas.

Step Three: Prepare Your StudentsIt is critical that you prepare your students. There will un-doubtedly be a diverse set of reactions to this method of teach-ing. Students who have been successful with the tradi-tional model of education may resist this change in your teaching style. Students who have not been success-

Flip Learning: How?

23

ful might be excited but not know what to do to become successful with this approach. Students who have attention deficit disor-der may start working on your flipped lesson and find themselves being drawn to twitter or (insert your digital distraction here) by some superior urge to be distracted. Attempt to thwart this by preparing a lesson on this method of teaching/learning.

In my class, I created a flip video that explained the concept of flip teaching/learning. Students watched the video in class with one student in charge of the con-trolspause,play, and rewind. Students were asked to watch the video, take notes (anyway they saw fit) and be able to ex-plain what flip teaching/learning is, why we were doing it, and how they could be suc-cessful with this approach. When the video was done we discussed everything. We dis-cussed why the person in charge paused the video when he/she did, what note taking methods they used, if they un-derstood it and if not what they could do make certain they did reach a level of under-stand. We then made a t-chart and identified positive and negative things about the ap-proach. We discussed the

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Flip Learning: How?

points and strategies to try to make everyone successful. The next day students were given a short quiz to ascertain their under-standing of the concept. If students did not receive a perfect score on the quiz, we chatted about the ones they got wrong and why. This activity was adapted from an example in Jon Bergman and Aaron Sams Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. It would also be a good idea to explain the method to parents and get them on board. Here is a letter I sent home with my students for their parents.

Therefore, step three is to prepare your students by teaching them the concept and practice using a flipped lesson in class. Discuss concerns and give them strategies to make them feel more confident about the process.

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Flip Learning: How?

Step Four: Prepare The Content of the Flip LessonBy this point you have set the ground work for success. You have a conceptual understanding of flip learning, you sifted through your lessons and identified appropriate places to in-sert the flip method, you have designed in class activities that are on the higher level of Bloom's Taxonomy and that require you, the expert, to be a part of the learning process for success to occur. Now, and only now, is it time to think about the con-tent that will be available for the student in replace of face to face class time.

There are two options for acquiring the content you offer during your flipped lesson: curation and crea-tion. Curation is the most appealing. Creation, however, is most likely the more effective approach for your lesson goals.

Curation is easy because it is what teachers have always done. In the traditional method teachers review textbooks and select the one that fits their curricular goals. There is a plethora of material to select from in the digital realm as well. Sites such as Khan Academy, TED-ED, Crash Course on YouTube, iTunes U, iBooks, and many others have very good material (Open-ED has curated material for teachers and aligned the content to the Common Core Standards. One only needs to perform a search on their site to find a list of potential mate-rial to use). However, the problem with curation, whether it

be textbooks or digital content, is curriculum becomes limited to what is available and our students lack a connection with the creator of the content. This method is fine to use, espe-cially when just starting out. You can learn a lot by observing others created content.

As you progress, however, you are going to want to create, and have students create, material. This will offer more flexibility and your students will appreciate seeing a face or hearing the voice of someone they know and see each day. When creating, there are two items to consider--how to create the content and the form of the final content. In order to consider both items you should begin with the form of the final content.

In my opinion, there are three forms of flipped content--lecture/demonstration, story, and interac-tive.

Flip Learning: How?

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FORMSLecture/Demonstration

Lecture and demonstration are simple. You either 1.)record your lectures or demonstrations as you deliver it to your students 2.)record your lecture or demonstration with a camera without your students (Here is a great tutorial by Keith Hughes on how to do this using a camera and iMovie) or 3.)take your power point/keynote, record your screen, and lecture or demonstrate like you would in class. Take a look at the examples to get some ideas. (Note: Examples require WiFi)

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Flip Learning: How?

Example: Dr. Lodge McCam-mon

Example: Keith Hughes Example: Jon Bergmann & Aaron Sams

Example: A ScreenCast I made

Suggestions for this Method

If using this method, I would suggest staying away from live recording with students in the classroom option. Audio qual-ity is usually lost in this process and most likely the material will not be as direct as you would like for a student watching on their own time. You will find that, while the content is the same, the manner in which you deliver the material is going to be different because the nature of your audience changes when you move the content from outside your classroom to an unknown environment for your students. First, there is no in-teractivity with the students. There is no need for rhetorical questions or lengthy stories. The idea is to deliver the con-tent. Keep them, if making videos, direct, short, and focused on one concept. Jon Bergman and Aaron Sams recommend re-cording with another person. One person plays the student asking questions and the other the teacher. I have not done this but clearly one could see how this would be more interac-tive and engaging..

Tools for this Method

In essence, you really only need a video camera and the tools you have always used (white board, markers, eraser, etc.). If you would like to do screen recordings look at my limited list of some software that will be helpful with this. I have also at-tached a link to tutorials I have found or made for each:

Computer

1. Quicktime (for Mac) (Tutorial)

2. Keynote (for Mac) (Tutorial)

3. Screencast-o-matic (Web Based) (Tutorial)

4. Screenflow (for Mac and has a cost)

5. Camtasia (for Mac or PC and has a cost)

iPad

1. Explain Everything (Paid) (Tutorial)

2. Vittle (Free and Paid Version) (Tutorial)

3. Educreations (Free)

4. ShowMe (Free)

5. Doceri (Free and Paid Version)

6. iPad Camera and iMovie (Free--You would be surprised how powerful these two can be)

Flip Learning: How?

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Story

Story has long been a form to teach. With the advancement of technology, you have the power to create attention grabbing stories to teach a concept. Many examples of this form exist--everything from graphic notes (made famous by RSA) to TED-ED anima-tions to the In Plain English format made famous by Lee Lefever and the Common Craft Company. Take a look at the examples to get some ideas. (Note: Examples require WiFi)

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Flip Learning: How?

Example: Wikis in Plain English by Lee Lefever from

Common Craft

Example: R.S.A. Sketch Note of Sir Ken Robinson lecture

Example: My Version of Flip Learning in Plain English. I used Explain Everything to

make this one

Example: My Version of what is a stock. I used Key-

note to make this one


First and foremost, you are not going to create an amazingly animated story your first time. Keep in mind that the afore-mentioned companies are experts in this format and spend a great deal of time and money getting things just right. Sec-ond, begin with a script--a narrative. I find it much easier to fill in the visuals after I have a story written. Third, have fun with it. If you are having fun making the story it will transfer and the students will be engaged.


There are many ways you could create these stories. I have seen some really neat things done with people just setting a camera on a tri-pod and recording their hand drawing images. Stop motion is a technique used where a story is told through a series of photographs that are put together to make a video. For those of us less artistic, here is a limited list of software that i have found to be helpful.

Computer

1. Keynote (for Mac) (How to make a Common Craft Video using Power Point/Keynote Tutorial)

2. PowToons (Free with options to buy premium features)

3. Moovly (Free with options to buy premium features)

4. Go Animate(Paid)

5. Sparkl VideoScribe (Paid)

iPad

1. Explain Everything (Paid) (Tutorial)

2. Vittle (Free and Paid Version)

3. Sparkl VideoScribe App (Paid but much cheaper than the subscription for the computer)

4. StopMotion Studio (Free and Paid Version)

5. iPad Camera and iMovie (Free--You would be surprised how powerful these two can be)

Flip Learning: How?

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Interactive

The interactive method allows for short breaks in the delivery of the content to ensure student understanding, provide opportunity for reflection, recode new content into the students own language, and review to foster solidification of the memory. Indeed this is infusing brain based research into the delivery of the content you want students to know. It may also allow for achievement of higher levels within Blooms taxonomy than can be achieved by simply assigning a reading or watching a video. It requires the stu-dent to be more active in the learning process and usually includes elements of text, lecture/demonstration videos and stories to deliver the content. While there are a few sites helping to make videos somewhat interactive, my favorite format has become the iBook. Look at the examples below for some ideas. Of course, this iBook serves as one. (Note: Examples require WiFi)

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Flip Learning: How?

Example: Anthony DiLauras iBook

Example: This is an Educan-non interactive video I made

Example: Zaption explana-tion video. Many more ele-

ments than EduCannon--but you have to pay for them

Example: This is a look at Videonot.es at work. Down-

side is it only works on a web browser and does not have an

app


Start with one of the other forms and then experiment making them better by incorporating them in this form. While this form is ideal, you are going to want to create all the pieces and then put the puzzle together. When you get into working with this form, be cautious about using all the whizz-bang fea-tures. Your project could very easily become too busy. In-stead, consider the purpose of each extra element you add. Ask yourself, is it necessary, does it enhance the learning expe-rience?


As mentioned earlier, in this form you will want to take exist-ing content and place it in an interactive format. Therefore, you will use a lot of the same tools mentioned earlier. The list that follows is one that consists of tools to help you form what you have into something interactive.

Computer

1. iBooks Author (Free) (Tutorials)

2. EduCannon (Free with Paid Features) (Web Based)

3. EdPuzzle (Free) (Web Based)

4. Zaption (Free with Paid Features) (Web Based)

5. VideoNot.es (Free) (Web Based)

iPad

1. Book Creator (Free and Paid Version)

2. Creative Book Builder (Paid)

In step four, you want to decide whether you are going to curate or create the content for the lesson, what form the content will take, and the tools needed to complete your content curation or creation.

Flip Learning: How?

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Step Five: DistributionThe final step is to distribute the digital content to your students. This can be done using several methods. Se-lect the one that works best with your workflow. Please note, students do not need internet to receive these materials. If you use an internet form, simply have the students download the content on their devices before they leave school. All the internet resources listed have a web presence and an app. They all allow for offline storage. Make certain to inform par-ents of this so students do not misinform them and you have angry parents wondering why they have to supply internet or wifi for their childrens education.

NON-INTERNET METHODSAll students at our school will have iPads and therefore will not need these methods. However, it is entirely possible stu-dents may loose the privilege of using the school tablet at home or at all. These methods might come in handy for such an occasion.

1. Burn to DVD

2. Save to USB Thumb Drives

3. Make available on your school servers

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (LMS)A learning management system is an online student/teacher classroom. They usually involve storage for content, the abil-ity for online discussions, online assessments and grading, communication tools and more. These require students to cre-ate an account and enroll in a course you have created for them to be used. The one exception is iTunes U. Below is not a complete list but rather a range of ones I am aware of and have tried. Currently, I am a user of Schoology. I find it fits my needs more than the others. A more complete list can be found here.

1. Schoology (Tutorial)

2. Edmodo

3. Canvas

4. Moodle

5. iTunes U

CLOUD SERVICESA cloud service is simply online storage. The main difference between cloud services and an LMS is the absence of features such as discussion threads, online assessment, etc. but they have the benefit of emailing a link to anyone and granting them access to files without setting up user accounts. In addi-

Flip Learning: How?

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tion to Schoology, I also save my content to Google Drive and make it available to students. Note, these services offer a cer-tain amount of storage for free. After you have reached that limit, you will need to buy more storage . Keep this in mind when making and distributing your content.

1. Google Drive (Tutorial)

2. Dropbox

3. Box

4. One Drive

5. Evernote

In the final step, select you will select a distribution method, or perhaps multiple methods, that fits in with your workflow and is easily accessible by your students.

Flip Learning: How?

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Part 4 Learning Activity: Complete the Mind Map

Flip Learning:Whats Next?

5

A StoryDuring the summer of 2014, my wife and I decided to enroll our son Elliot in a summer learning program to prepare him for 4k school in the fall. He had been going to the daycare my sister owns and operates for almost his entire life and we felt it was time to transition him away from this sheltered world he has become very comfortable with and have him start to ex-perience meeting and socializing with other people.The night before he was to go to his "summer school," that's what we called it, he decided he did not want to go.He wanted to stay home.He wanted to stay at his Aunt's.He wanted to do all the things he has done his entire life. My heart was broken.I sympathized with the little guy.There was a part of me that didn't want him to go either.This was a big change and I knew it would be painful.I knew he did not do well in new so-cial situations--he is an anxious child.However, it was time for him to grow.And so, I tried to explain to him that things that seem scary at first usually become the most worth-while experiences of our lives.I asked him to recall the time he was scared of the climbing wall in the park.Today, the wall is trivial."See," I said, "there are big-ger and better things to conquer.It

will be an adventure!"Well, the story didn't work.He was not a happy camper the morning of his first day.Of course, we forced him to go and it was a painful process.But, we be-lieve we have begun to foster a mindset that will lead him to challenge himself and strive for growth in his life. At least we tell ourselves that this is the case.

A MindsetI tell that story because we have all had moments similar to the one described about Elliot. Indeed, there are grown adults every day that refuse to try some-thing new--refuse to change--because they are comfort-able of where they are and fear the un-known. If you have made it this far in the book, my guess is you are not one of those people. You have at least considered trying a por-tion of the flipped method in your class and want to grow as a

Flip Learning: Whats Next?

36

professional. Nonetheless, change is difficult. And too often, when faced with difficulties we go back to our comfort zone. Unfortunately, there will be challenges when you begin to im-plement the model in your classroom. Most likely, it is not go-ing to work perfectly the first time. I remember distinctly the moment I realized that things were not going as I had envi-sioned with the mastery approach I had established and had to alter the format of the course. Its important at that point not to give up and go back to your comfort zone. Instead, con-tinue to experiment. Reflect on why the approach did not work but continue to move on. Psychologist Carol Dweck has researched and written about people who have a growth mind-

set verse a fixed mindset when approaching challenges. Her research has concluded that individuals who exhibit character-istics of a growth mindset are more likely to reach their full po-tential than those with a fixed mindset.

A TipStart small! I did not. I jumped in with both feet and it was stressful. I felt pressure to see the pilot program through be-cause I had accepted that responsibility when I agreed to pilot the idea in my class. Had it not been for that fact, I may have went back to my comfort zone. Rather than flip an entire course, start with something manageable. Here is a limited list of some ideas to start your flipping experiment:

safety procedures (In Example: For the science lab, auto-mechanic shop, or weight lifting room. Make certain to as-sess them well before giving them the green light!)

how to use a certain digital tool (Web based or mobile app).

instructions for a project

a simple skill (In Example: How to properly cite a source)

a virtual field trip

record a guest speaker

a single lesson


37

record you giving feedback on a paper, piece of writing, or project to individual students so they can hear and see what you see

The important thing is that you start with something and build from that point forward. To keep you informed, I have included a hand selected list of resources that I will continu-ally update. Some resources are curated things mentioned ear-lier in the book and other are brand new. They are located here for easy reference.

Curated Resources1. Further Reading on Flipped Learning (Books)

2. Flipped Learning: What

3. Flipped Learning: How

4. Tools for Flipping the Classroom

5. Noted Flippers to Follow

6. iBooks Author

7. Gamification

8. Project Based Learning


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Part 5 Learning Activity: S.M.A.R.T. Goal

About the TeacherRob Kamrowski is a high school social study teacher of some years. He teaches in a rural school district in western Wiscon-sin. Certified to teach Broad Field Social Studies, History, Po-litical Science, World Geography, and Economics, he has taught a variety of subjects and students within the discipline of Social Studies. He earned his Bachelor Degree in 2003, his Masters Degree in 2008, and strives to earn the respect of his students, colleagues and family every day of every year. He has a strong interest in educational technology and transfor-mative methods of teaching.

About this BookIn no way is this book a product that represents the beliefs of the school Rob teaches at or the people for whom he works.The purpose of book is to serve as a reflective tool, a discussion platform, an historical archive, and a reference point of materials and information for anyone who dares to try something different in their classroom. Digital discus-sions, debates, and collaboration are welcomed.

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