Are You Ready to Flip Your Classroom?

Hey you all,

      Today I want to talk about Flipped Learning. Maybe you may have heard of it before, or you may have a knowledge of it. Let me clarify the subject for you. Flipped Learning is actually an approach that blends face-to-face interaction in the classroom with independent study outside of it, often through viewing assigned video content. At its most basic level, teachers will instruct students to watch a long-form lecture or recorded slideshow video at home, then come to class prepared to discuss its concepts, similarly to assigned readings. Of course, recording lecture videos and making them available to students is beneficial to and important for a modern, accessible classroom. And providing content for students to review on their own time and actively discuss in the classroom has been a crucial part of learning since the dawn of academia. 

      According to Kari M. Arfstrom, co-founder of the Flipped Learning Network, flipped learning is all about creating opportunities for active engagement. It’s 

"a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter," she explains.

       But what exactly does this mean for classroom teachers? In the first place, they are able to spend more time with struggling students while allowing further developed students the opportunity to work ahead. It’s large-scale differentiated instruction, built into the curriculum at every opportunity. 

        Since the students are already familiar with the material when class begins, they can spend their time collaborating with their teacher and other students to strengthen their understanding, either individually or in small groups. “Less ‘sit and listen’ equals more ‘do and learn’ — and the flipped model is making class time more enjoyable, productive and engaging for students and teachers,” the Flipped Institute continues.

          Now, you learned about Flipped Learning. However, this is not what I want to talk about today. There is a nice program named Flipped Learning. This software helps you to prepare flipped learning materials and to create a book just for your students. Basically, you are creating a book which is interactive. You connect links to book to inform students who want to get deeper with the subject. Or you can create mini-quizzes just to see whether the pupils internalize the concepts. 

It is not a free software, but I believe it will help you a lot. The founders arrange education programs to introduce this system. But it is in Turkey, and Turkish of course. However, you can figure out easily how it works. I am leaving here the original webpage of the founders: Check it out