Whenever I talk to fellow educators who are dubious of the flipped classroom model, it seems that there are always two driving forces behind their doubts. The first is what I find most are outwardly interested in..."how can a video ever take the place of a classroom experience?" They fear that students will not grasp the concepts well, that the youth of America will fall behind and that the country will decline into inevitable ruin. Alright, that last part might be a bit of hyperbole, but you get the idea. The second is a far more personal and therefore insidious fear..."if the flipped classroom gains traction and students learn from videos, then what need will there be for teachers? We'll all be out of a job!"
I'd like to address both questions with a story from my formative years. My Algebra 2 teacher, who shall remain nameless (not merely out of kindness but because her name has failed to persist in my memory), was an example of the aforementioned fears. I know not how she was ever deemed qualified to teach Algebra 2, but I clearly remember when we got to the chapter on logarithms, she, being inept at this concept herself, popped in a VHS (that's right, old school flipped classroom) of a college professor teaching the lesson. This took up the better part of a 90 minute block and the only thing that has stuck with me through the years was how amazed I was that this guy in the video could write neatly on a chalk board with what appeared to be fat, sidewalk-style chalk. If you asked me to do a logarithm, to this day, I'd stare at you blankly.
So what is the point of my story, you may ask? It is a maxim if you will; a rebuttal against what I perceive are the two greatest doubts of the flipped classroom. The first is that a video simply cannot take the place of the classroom experience or a good teacher. Sure Professor Fat-Chalk went through the concept of logarithms, but my actual teacher could not answer any questions the class was left with after the video, nor did she organize useful activities to reinforce the concept.
She also didn't pre-empt the class in any way; she merely hit play. And there in my story underscores the threat (or lack thereof) from Fear #2. As teachers, we are in the business of showing students how to learn. This can't be done through a video. So yes, in my class I assign MOST of my grammar lessons as videos for homework. Which ones don't become homework assignments? The first two videos of the year. These I make the students watch in class with me. We go over the importance and methodology of taking notes, of pausing the video when they are confused so that they can write down questions. I teach them to re-watch the video and see if they can answer their own questions, and if not to bring those questions into class the next day where I can help them through it.
When they arrive in class having watched a new video for homework, the five-minute question and answer begins. Once everyone has a chance to air out the questions which they came prepared for class with, I lead them through activities that pertain directly to that concept. I prefer group work and in this way I can traverse from group to group, targeting students who need a little more help. It makes a large classroom seem that much smaller to the students and I am able to guide them through the concept instead of sending them home with an assignment that they may not grasp and thus struggle through with little benefit to their overall understanding.
Let's face it, the world is constantly changing and media is becoming increasingly digitalized. Instructional videos are used for a range of audiences and purposes, from showing the consumer how to put together a new IKEA bed to large companies that use videos for in-house professional development.
We shouldn't fear adding this type of media into our classes because now, thanks to the very technology that will inevitably dominate the future, we have the unique opportunity to be exponentially more helpful to our students. Via the flipped classroom, we can not only better teach our students material relevant to our subject area but also teach them HOW to learn from this new type of media. And as a teacher of what many consider a dead language, I am heartened by the fact that though in ten years my students may not remember when the Roman Republic began or how to decline agricola, they will be armed with the methodology needed to learn from both traditional methods and modern media.
If you would like to know more about how I integrate the flipped classroom into my teaching or would like to discuss technology in general, my personal email address is [email protected].