Flip the Classroom, but not onto its Head

Imagine you’re watching a movie. In this thriller, the protagonist is in a dark ally pursuing the bad guy. All seems quiet when out of the corner of your eye the killer come into view. He sneaks up on our hero, raises his weapon, and gets ready to strike. “LOOK OUT,” you scream, but no one can hear you. The film is not interactive; you know this, but you scream anyway. But what if it wasn’t a movie? What if you’re in a classroom, learning some complicated theory. You have questions, but the instructor can’t hear you. You, like our protagonist, are out of luck. That’s a terrible way to learn. It’s also what could happen when Flipped Classrooms are done wrong.

I’m about to enter my last week of teaching in a classroom, at least for the foreseeable future. My time at The University of Scranton is coming to a close after 13 years. I’m getting married and moving. I want to focus on personal projects, personal life, and most importantly, being married. I’m not telling you this to get nostalgic or anything like that. I can keep teaching because technology gives us the ability to teach anyone, anywhere.

[bctt tweet=”Technology gives us the ability to teach literally anyone, anywhere.” username=”jcasabona”]

Flip the Classroom, but not Completely

It’s easier than ever to set up a membership site and host videos for an online course. Technology is paving the way for people of all walks of life to learn at their own pace. It’s also brought about the notion of the Flipped Classroom – where students watch lectures at home and work through assignments in class. It seems like a great idea, but recently one of my students showed me why it could be a terrible experience.

She was taking a Calculus class and the professor used a flipped classroom. He would send them videos to watch at home and they would do problems in class.

My student said there were a few problems. First, there was no way for the teacher to get feedback from students during the lectures, either through questions or visual cues to see if the students were understanding. I rely on that, particularly when I’m teaching something complicated.

[bctt tweet=”Flipped Classrooms don’t allow for immediate feedback.” username=”jcasabona”]

The second problem is the professor wasn’t giving the lectures – he was sending Khan Academy videos. I understand using videos to help drive home the point of a lecture. There are people who can explain something better than me; but making your lesson plan using free videos is lazy.

What’s the point of paying a teacher if he’s linking to free content? With the public outcry of the rising price of college tuition, it’s not hard to see what could play out. Colleges could cut teaching jobs and put most lectures online for a subscription.

Striking a Balance

I don’t think flipped classrooms are inherently bad, but it seems teachers like them more than students; like anything, you need to listen to your users.

This semester I tried something different. I had my students buy a book for class that I referenced frequently in the beginning of the semester. I taught the basics to them in the classroom.

[bctt tweet=”I’m a big proponent of learning by doing.” username=”jcasabona”]

But as the semester went on, I did less teaching and more coding, narrating what I was doing and encouraging them to code with me. I’m a proponent of learning by doing. I’d work on CodePen while telling them what I was doing and why. I never fully prepared what we developed because I wanted my students to see me look up functions and mess up. I also did something else.

Get Feedback Often

I asked my students regularly if this was working for them. Learning to code is daunting; I didn’t want to continue a method that made it harder. There were never objections, and a lot of interaction.

Always encourage questions and never make a student feel stupid for asking one. Remember everyone learns at their own pace. That’s one reason flipped classrooms might not work: throwing videos at students and never addressing those videos isn’t teaching.

Iterate Often

There is no silver bullet for teaching. You need to update and reevaluate. I’ll never understand the people who get into teaching because, “it’s easy.” It’s anything but easy.

[bctt tweet=”I’ll never understand the people who get into teaching because it’s easy.” username=”jcasabona”]

What About Online Courses?

I think online courses are great, but teaching an online course and teaching in a classroom are not the same. They shouldn’t be treated as such.

I think there are several ways to improve flipped classrooms:

• Lecture in class early on
• Record your own videos. Maybe even create an online course
• Address the videos in class
• Spend time solving problems. Show how it’s done and give students a similar problem
• Give them time in class to work on their projects

After my wedding I will develop a lot of teacher materials – eBooks, online courses, and webinars through WP in One Month. These are the principles I will use to guide development and execution. I think personal connections, no matter what the medium for teaching, is the best way for people to learn.

[bctt tweet=”Personal connections, no matter what the medium for teaching, is the best way for people to learn” username=”jcasabona”]