They didn’t convince a manufacturer of anything, they produced it themselves
It increases teacher-student interactions
4) Development:
Intended audience = teachers and in relation, students
Problems = misconceptions, teacher resistance, parent resistance, lack of resources
5) Commercialization:
The biggest commercial pieces of this innovation are the books that have been written about it. It does not need to be packaged and sold in any other way.
6) Conclusion:
Pros and cons of the flipped classroom
Possible solutions to issues with the flipped classroom
My opinion on the flipped classroom
Plans to use this innovation in my own classroom.
The Flipped Classroom
Here is my paper for module 1. The topic I am covering for this class is the flipped classroom.
Rationale for Technological Innovations for Multimedia Presentation
For this assignment, I looked at the website called Computer Using Educators or C.U.E. I found this site to be very interesting and will be pursuing attending this conference in the future. I was able to read about many different innovations on this website, but the three that struck me as the most useful in my classroom were iBooks Author, Socrative, and the idea of flipped classrooms. All three have very exciting applications in an elementary classroom. The following will describe the three innovations and discuss their applications as I see them in a day-to-day plan for a class of fourth graders.
iBooks Author
iBooks Author is an excellent tool that is being utilized on iPad. You use the application to create books – both textbooks and regular books (for recreational reading) that are multi-touch in nature and therefore completely interactive (Apple, 2012). There are templates for you to use to make creating these books easy and user-friendly. You simply “drag and drop” your content to where you want it and when you are done and have saved it, it is available for use on any iPad. It is fully customizable to fit any need that you may have. This is something that I can see being used for students to demonstrate knowledge about various topics that they are learning about. It could be used in any subject area and then viewed by their peers. This would be a relatively easy innovation to adopt for schools with access to iPads. The biggest barrier that I see happening with this innovation is that iPads are expensive and therefore not very accessible yet. We have a few of them in my school but they are reserved as tools for our students who are non-verbal to aid them in communicating with us. In my industry (classroom teacher) this would be an amazing tool for all students.
Socrative
Socrative is another technology-based program. It is accessible on any device – computers, iPads, and smart phones to name a few (Socrative.com, 2012). It can be used for assessment, practice, quizzes, games, and exit tickets and it generates reports that are useable as tools for the teacher. The best part is that it is free! For me, I can see using this as an engagement tool in my classroom. We have so much technology in my building that it would be just another way to engage my students in their education. This innovation would be the easiest of my three innovations to adopt. A roadblock to using this innovation that I can see is that sometimes, even though we have a ton of it, technology is not available for me to use. I would have to ask parents to allow their children to bring their cell phones or personal laptops to school. I think that this would be possible if they understood the reasoning behind it.
The Flipped Classroom
Flipped teaching or The Flipped Classroom as it is referred to in my district is a new idea for me. I recently spoke with a colleague about this and was completely intrigued. The idea behind flipped teaching is that the teacher is giving up some responsibility for the education of a child and handing it off to the child (Flippedlearning.org, 2012). Here’s how it could work: The teacher records a video teaching a concept that kids need to learn. The kids are responsible for watching that video before they attend the class where the concept will be covered. The host site would be something like YouTube (which is what I would use if I were to do this). For kids without Internet access (as would be an issue in my school), the teacher would be responsible for supplying the children with another option for viewing the video. For example, in my building, kids could check out an iPod with the video loaded on it and watch it that way. It could also be burned to a DVD. This option for teaching allows the teacher to have more face-to-face time with kids, to support their learning in a deeper and more meaningful way. This is something that I am preparing to do next semester in my classroom. I am going to choose one subject area to do it in first and then expand, as I get more comfortable with it. The major roadblock for me in this situation is simply time. I am so busy on a daily basis and I would need a consistent time that could be just for production of my videos. This is the toughest innovation to adopt in my opinion. It takes time and dedication on a level that I just do not see in many of my colleagues.
Selected Innovation
The innovation that I have selected to work with for this class is flipped teaching. It is something that I am going to do no matter what so it seemed like the best choice. I chose this innovation because I believe that it will drive my instruction in a direction that my students need it to go. I work in an area where my student population is largely military kids and kids who are of a lower socio-economic status. Many of them need to be shown how to become independent and take responsibility for their learning. Flipping my classroom will help them learn this. Although 21st Century Skills do not just focus on technology usage, that is a large part of the skill set. This would be one more way that my students could access information to help prepare them for their futures. Also, it would be a good remediation tool for those kids who needed to review a concept or two. I do not always have time to go back and re-teach concepts, especially when it is only one or two kids who need it. With a flipped classroom, I would have an archive of videos to support student learning on a whole new level.
Student reaction to flipped classrooms has been generally positive. Most instances of flipped classrooms have been found at the high school level. Students feel like they were able to ask more valuable questions in classrooms where instruction was flipped (Fulton, 2012). They knew before class what they did not understand and were able to clarify these things in class the next day. Students who were expected to view teaching before class stated that they felt like they were more comfortable in class and able to ask more questions. They also enjoyed the ability to pause and rewind instruction. If they did not understand something the first time, they were able to go back and listen to what their teacher said again about whatever topic it was that they were learning. Flipped classrooms help students make a deeper connection with their learning and provide them with a review of content, as they need it to happen.
I did not choose the other two innovations to focus on for a few reasons. One of those reasons is that although both are useful, I am not sure how deep in could get with their integration in my classroom. Although I will likely try both of them, I will not spend the time I would need to delve too deeply into them. They seem to me to be superficial products. My issue with Socrative is that I do not know how long it will be accessible. As was discussed quite a lot in this week’s discussion, some technological innovations tend to come in and go out so quickly that not many people have the time to get a hold of them and really use them to see how they work. Because Socrative is a web-based program, I worry that it will not be around long enough for me to make an impact with it. As far as iBook Author goes, I see this one as just another presentation tool. I am sure that it has more uses but none of them will go as deep with content as I could go with flipped teaching. Also, my school does not have access to enough iPads for my integration of this tool to be useful in my classroom. For these reasons, I have chosen to focus my time and energy on flipped teaching.
Story Board for Multimedia Presentation
The Flipped Classroom
Here is my paper for module 1. The topic I am covering for this class is the flipped classroom.
Rationale for Technological Innovations for Multimedia Presentation
For this assignment, I looked at the website called Computer Using Educators or C.U.E. I found this site to be very interesting and will be pursuing attending this conference in the future. I was able to read about many different innovations on this website, but the three that struck me as the most useful in my classroom were iBooks Author, Socrative, and the idea of flipped classrooms. All three have very exciting applications in an elementary classroom. The following will describe the three innovations and discuss their applications as I see them in a day-to-day plan for a class of fourth graders.
iBooks Author
iBooks Author is an excellent tool that is being utilized on iPad. You use the application to create books – both textbooks and regular books (for recreational reading) that are multi-touch in nature and therefore completely interactive (Apple, 2012). There are templates for you to use to make creating these books easy and user-friendly. You simply “drag and drop” your content to where you want it and when you are done and have saved it, it is available for use on any iPad. It is fully customizable to fit any need that you may have. This is something that I can see being used for students to demonstrate knowledge about various topics that they are learning about. It could be used in any subject area and then viewed by their peers. This would be a relatively easy innovation to adopt for schools with access to iPads. The biggest barrier that I see happening with this innovation is that iPads are expensive and therefore not very accessible yet. We have a few of them in my school but they are reserved as tools for our students who are non-verbal to aid them in communicating with us. In my industry (classroom teacher) this would be an amazing tool for all students.
Socrative
Socrative is another technology-based program. It is accessible on any device – computers, iPads, and smart phones to name a few (Socrative.com, 2012). It can be used for assessment, practice, quizzes, games, and exit tickets and it generates reports that are useable as tools for the teacher. The best part is that it is free! For me, I can see using this as an engagement tool in my classroom. We have so much technology in my building that it would be just another way to engage my students in their education. This innovation would be the easiest of my three innovations to adopt. A roadblock to using this innovation that I can see is that sometimes, even though we have a ton of it, technology is not available for me to use. I would have to ask parents to allow their children to bring their cell phones or personal laptops to school. I think that this would be possible if they understood the reasoning behind it.
The Flipped Classroom
Flipped teaching or The Flipped Classroom as it is referred to in my district is a new idea for me. I recently spoke with a colleague about this and was completely intrigued. The idea behind flipped teaching is that the teacher is giving up some responsibility for the education of a child and handing it off to the child (Flippedlearning.org, 2012). Here’s how it could work: The teacher records a video teaching a concept that kids need to learn. The kids are responsible for watching that video before they attend the class where the concept will be covered. The host site would be something like YouTube (which is what I would use if I were to do this). For kids without Internet access (as would be an issue in my school), the teacher would be responsible for supplying the children with another option for viewing the video. For example, in my building, kids could check out an iPod with the video loaded on it and watch it that way. It could also be burned to a DVD. This option for teaching allows the teacher to have more face-to-face time with kids, to support their learning in a deeper and more meaningful way. This is something that I am preparing to do next semester in my classroom. I am going to choose one subject area to do it in first and then expand, as I get more comfortable with it. The major roadblock for me in this situation is simply time. I am so busy on a daily basis and I would need a consistent time that could be just for production of my videos. This is the toughest innovation to adopt in my opinion. It takes time and dedication on a level that I just do not see in many of my colleagues.
Selected Innovation
The innovation that I have selected to work with for this class is flipped teaching. It is something that I am going to do no matter what so it seemed like the best choice. I chose this innovation because I believe that it will drive my instruction in a direction that my students need it to go. I work in an area where my student population is largely military kids and kids who are of a lower socio-economic status. Many of them need to be shown how to become independent and take responsibility for their learning. Flipping my classroom will help them learn this. Although 21st Century Skills do not just focus on technology usage, that is a large part of the skill set. This would be one more way that my students could access information to help prepare them for their futures. Also, it would be a good remediation tool for those kids who needed to review a concept or two. I do not always have time to go back and re-teach concepts, especially when it is only one or two kids who need it. With a flipped classroom, I would have an archive of videos to support student learning on a whole new level.
Student reaction to flipped classrooms has been generally positive. Most instances of flipped classrooms have been found at the high school level. Students feel like they were able to ask more valuable questions in classrooms where instruction was flipped (Fulton, 2012). They knew before class what they did not understand and were able to clarify these things in class the next day. Students who were expected to view teaching before class stated that they felt like they were more comfortable in class and able to ask more questions. They also enjoyed the ability to pause and rewind instruction. If they did not understand something the first time, they were able to go back and listen to what their teacher said again about whatever topic it was that they were learning. Flipped classrooms help students make a deeper connection with their learning and provide them with a review of content, as they need it to happen.
I did not choose the other two innovations to focus on for a few reasons. One of those reasons is that although both are useful, I am not sure how deep in could get with their integration in my classroom. Although I will likely try both of them, I will not spend the time I would need to delve too deeply into them. They seem to me to be superficial products. My issue with Socrative is that I do not know how long it will be accessible. As was discussed quite a lot in this week’s discussion, some technological innovations tend to come in and go out so quickly that not many people have the time to get a hold of them and really use them to see how they work. Because Socrative is a web-based program, I worry that it will not be around long enough for me to make an impact with it. As far as iBook Author goes, I see this one as just another presentation tool. I am sure that it has more uses but none of them will go as deep with content as I could go with flipped teaching. Also, my school does not have access to enough iPads for my integration of this tool to be useful in my classroom. For these reasons, I have chosen to focus my time and energy on flipped teaching.
References
Apple. (2012). iBooks author. Accessed on December 16, 2012 from http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/
C.U.E. (2012). Fall cue conference. Accessed on December 16, 2012 from http://cue.org/fall.
Fulton, K. (2012). Upside down and inside out: flip your classroom to improve student learning. Accessed on December 16, 2012 from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid
&hid=109&sid=3cace0a0-e4ba-4960-8fbd-0aee76fd8b94%40sessionmgr112.
Socrative. (2012). Engage the class using any device. Accessed on December 16, 2012 from http://www.socrative.com/.