The Flipped Classroom

The Flipped Classroom is a form of blend learning used in techtool4schools. This is from an educational video cast that allows the teacher to prerecord lectures and make them available for students who miss class and to help flip the way students and teachers use their classroom period. The whole design around the “flipped classroom” is to have the students listen to a prerecorded lecture, that they would normally listen to in class, before coming to class, so that the students’ role then changes to being an active participant within the classroom. The student can spend what would be their lecture time, doing group or individual activities, with the teacher being there to answer and help clarify misunderstandings. Teachers are now using various technologies to record and share their classroom directions and lectures. No matter the software, the teacher has the capabilities to share the file via a website, blog, or even YouTube. The possibilities for The Flipped Class are unlimited and leave the teacher room to explore different options for how to approach their lesson plan. I chose a Flip Classroom video on the introduction to English IV British Literature. Check it out. It’s pretty well done! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VACZj61mcpM

Working on creating PowerPoint presentation taught me a whole new set of skills like: how to format text in perfect columns, insert graphics and audio, and how to create a linear presentation. This project helped me build upon my existing knowledge of PowerPoint and improve on my design skills. I liked learning how to create an interactive slide show that can be used for academic purposes. I thought it brought an element of fun to an assignment that may have been dull. What I liked least about this assignment was figuring out how to inject audio into the presentation. It took a little bit of research and finagling, but I finally figured it out. I think I can improve upon my slide illustrations. I know they might not have been the most appealing to the eye. I could work better in presenting my slide in a fun and artistic way as well.

Looking at my instructor’s blog posts. I found the topic of Open Content and Open Source to be the most interesting. Up until that blog post, I never knew about the subject of open source content. Learning about this topic helped open up my eyes to how teachers and students acquire and use open content and sources on a daily basis. This plays a huge role in the academic arena and has made a huge impact on how both teacher and student use this new technology.