Tuesday, June 18, 2013

21st century instruction..., making learning fun, interesting, and effective


wikipedia | Flip teaching (or flipped classroom) is a form of blended learning in which students watch lectures online and work on problem sets with other students in class. This approach allows teachers to spend more time interacting with students instead of lecturing. This is also known as backwards classroom, reverse instruction, flipping the classroom and reverse teaching.[1][2]

The traditional pattern of teaching has been to assign students to read textbooks and work on problem sets outside school, while listening to lectures and taking test in class. In flip teaching, the students first study the topic by themselves, typically using video lessons prepared by the teacher[3][4] or third parties such as the Khan Academy. Classroom time is for the students to apply the knowledge by solving problems and doing practical work.[5][6][7] The teacher tutors the students when they become stuck, rather than imparting the initial lesson. Complementary techniques include[8] differentiated instruction and project-based learning.[9]
Students who have no access to computers or the internet outside school cannot participate in flipped classes.[9]

24 comments:

Uglyblackjohn@att.net said...

This was the model used for our 'gifted' program when I was a kid. I learned more through helping others than I did by listening to a teacher

CNu said...

The only way to truly master any subject is to teach it. The tools to do this have existed since the widespread proliferation of VHS. Military STEM has been conducted in this fashion for 25 years based on research done at Stanford. The world-wide-web and cheap portable end-point devices (perfect for watching Netflix) make this revolution a complete no-brainer.


But you know who's scurred as hell of this approach to learning-centered instruction? Teachers who can see the handwriting on the wall wrt their current levels of classroom planning and preparation, and, their established role as the "sage on the stage" rather than the "guide by the side". The real, true, and villainous busters, are the administrators weeping and gnashing their teeth (big-assed crocodile tears) over how necessary the status quo is to prevent "cheating".


If the focus was ever truly on learning, you'd see this universally embraced, quick, fast, and in a hurry. Where there is resistance, you can rest assured that the resistance reflects underlying malfeasance on the part of the so-called "educators" putting up a fuss.

CNu said...

My current side project is the organization of a professional grade tennis academy for poor kids whose parents could not possibly afford to send them to Bollettieri http://www.imgacademy.com/prep-school-program/academics - look at what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harkness_table - virtual and flipped all the way. (now replace tennis with "gymnastics", "plastic arts", "instrumental music" - you name it - all the cultural enrichment that the public schools dropped or backburnered like hotcakes years ago)

The minute I stopped talking exclusively about STEM and advanced professional studies in STEM related areas, and started talking about putting together a sports academy - built on the same virtual learning infrastructure I was proposing to put together for STEM was EXACTLY the minute that people's ears starting perking up and they started paying attention. My only regret is that I should've thunk in this direction years ago....,

Uglyblackjohn said...

Doesn't Agassi do this in Vegas?

CNu said...

Not sustainably. Not to take anything away from his best of intentions, but the limiting factor to this being replicated is the necessity of continuing charitable contributions to fund operations. He's working that top-heavy 19th century education model and pushing morality and educational accountability on the homefront. http://www.agassiprep.org/education-philosophy/

I plan on working the 21st century education model and letting morality and accountability emanate from the tennis court. Same way I told my daughter when she was a competitive gymnast and tried to shirk some sit-ups and push-ups. "Baby, when you cheat on those calisthenics, who are you cheating?"



Same basic mind-trick employed with my son whose adolescent growth spurt and old-school private instruction transformed him from a short, struggling husky tennis wannabe, into a 6' tall, 13 year old beast dominating boys much older than he is. "When you cheat on that run, and when you cheat on hitting 300 serves this morning, who're you cheating?"


Competition is for the athletic arena. Collaboration is for the classroom. The former complements the latter and the latter complements the former. Everything else is merely conversation.....,

CNu said...

Once you see the state of the art, and the state of the art in practice http://www.odysseyware.com/products/courses/ the old way shrivels up into the top-heavy, gaseous, and ludicrously self-important ineffectual nothingness it has worked long and hard to become.

Joyce M said...

I saw the video. Is this the new bright shiny object obscuring a real problem with promises of a magic fix? It disparages textbooks and lectures. I see this as the rote learning model that has been pushed by Rupert Murdock(wants to make money from it), the Walmart family and Bill Gates. Teaching children to have short attention spans has no long term benefit. These programs teach to a test that they help to create. You learn to write well by reading. No textbooks, huh? This is a photo of a "flipped classroom" http://www.flickr.com/photos/21507031@N04/6336293482 and this is a photo of a Harvard University classroom http://www.johnhopebryant.com/john_hope_bryant_/images/2008/04/10/harvard_university_2008_010.jpg Rote learning does not foster creativity, independent thought or increased attention spans. Textbooks and lectures are still widely in use at our universities. http://webcast.berkeley.edu/series.html#c,s,Spring_2013 Good luck passing the AP and CLEP with that type of education. http://clep.collegeboard.org/ & http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/Controller.jpf The one way a poor student could complete an education cheaply is through challenge exams. Example: State University of New York, Canton--http://www.canton.edu/career_services/docs/Exam_Reference_Guide.pdf I am going to listen to my daughter on this subject. She told me that the most important tool in helping her understand the subject matter are lectures given by professors online...the sage on the stage. Clearing college courses with one exam at $100 a course has saved us tens of thousands of dollars. It also shows that she is a self-starter and disciplined. Instructional materials at http://www.saylor.org/ coupled with http://www.youtube.com/education?category=University and Amazon.com(textbooks are still important along with supplementary reading material) has saved us 20K plus a year in educational costs. Teachers have been under attack for years while the parents' part in their children's failure is largely ignored. We have charters schools with unlicensed teachers that are doing worse than the public schools. Some have been closed. After fighting for equal educational opportunities, the fight is now being lost to the oligarchs.(including the ones wanting to make a profit from education) No need to worry as there are traditionally educated foreign students waiting for the opportunity to come to the U.S.

Tom said...

Joyce, I'm also a dissident here vs our host's jaundiced view of the traditional system of education. The current system falls short in many ways, but I don't see any reason to expect that a new system will be better, and it could easily be even worse. Which, worse than this we definitely can't afford.

CNu said...

lol, he types into one of the several bright, shiny end-point devices he owns, uses, and enjoys..., let the little peasants eat printed cake, with no learning support at home, no collaborative outlets, etc..., because the big, broad hump of the pedagogical bell curve is a full generation or two behind the curve and would be thrown unceremoniously on its rump if compelled to deliver instruction which fully exploits the advantages of digitally native 21st century communications technology.

Tom said...

:-) I own a PC; my only other "device" is a dumb phone. We pay about $100 a year for it. This "mobile" stuff is a complete red herring; a "mobile device" is a computer with a small screen and a crappy keyboard. Twenty years ago you and I would surely have agreed on that point; what has changed?

I are a engineer. I think a big part of the reason why 1/2 to 3/4 of engineers out there basically can't do their jobs is they emphasized "collaboration" in school at the expense of competence. But in the old days, the total sucks generally had to at least show up and pick their noses while the more engaged students did the homework. The exciting new online collaborative solutions seem designed to free up the sucks' time and make them even more competitive.

Just because some horrible fraudulent so-called "educators" are hiding behind a smokescreen called "cheating" doesn't mean there's no genuine problem.

CNu said...

This "mobile" stuff is a complete red herring; a "mobile device" is a computer with a small screen and a crappy keyboard. Twenty years ago you and I would surely have agreed on that point; what has changed?

I bought $5.00 ear buds, put 300 pdf books and 500 albums worth of mp3's on my rooted, $8.00 real-time UNIX O/S pocket computer which allows me to make phone calls, smurf the web, text my chirrens and take amazingly good photographs and videos for cheap 24/7/365 - and became a believer. The device is a liberating vehicle for content and communications, nothing more, nothing less.

I think a big part of the reason why 1/2 to 3/4 of engineers out there basically can't do their jobs is they emphasized "collaboration" in school at the expense of competence. But in the old days, the total sucks generally had to at least show up and pick their noses while the more engaged students did the homework. The exciting new online collaborative solutions seem designed to free up the sucks' time and make them even more competitive.

lol, spoken JUST like one of the old gnurds who're paradoxically proud of their personal and individual exceptionalism exhibited back in the day - and - simultaneously perplexed as to why the last two generations of children have little to no interest in STEM as they preserve and enjoy it.

So, there are two fronts on which I'd ask you to consider the problem space as it exists today.

1. There is more and more difficult subject matter comprising the grist of the scientific and applied scientific mill at this moment in time. It's the divide between Umbra's Newtonian imperative and the quantum/nano/genetic/informationtheoretical science and application being milled today.

2. Ergodic texts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espen_Aarseth have permanently and profoundly altered the landscape of cognitive infiltration and there are no kids in school anymore who have not been permanently and profoundly influenced by this change in the cultural and media mindscape.

Joyce M said...

Tom, there is a discussion at this NPR story that is very interesting. http://www.npr.org/2013/03/08/173766828/news-corp-education-tablet-for-the-love-of-learning Me and my little peasant devour enormous amounts of printed cake and enjoy it. My daughter is studying for 36 credit hours via CLEP and she has to have books to accomplish her goals. She cannot study Business Law, Analyzing and Interpreting Literature and Financial Accounting without printed materials. As a matter of fact, I ordered more printed cake today. The sooner she gets to her senior year, the sooner she can start her internship at the company her dad works for. When she graduates, she will attend the same state college system for her Masters in Accounting and CPA. http://www.sunyit.edu/programs/graduate/msacc/criteria The college system contacts and advises my daughter on a regular basis. I wanted her to live on campus, but she is not trying to hear that. She is trying to stay close to her parents so she can get an internship and a position with the benefit of tuition reimbursement to defray the costs of graduate school. My daughter wants to remain debt free and save her money for other things she will need in the future.


Every parent must make up their own mind about the educational choices that are out there. But, they should have a choice. Poor kids spend plenty of time on electronic devices--where do you think they learn to shoot with such deadly accuracy. I have been to homes where there are more electronic devices than there were books. Mothers are selling their foodstamps to buy their children the latest game console.

Joyce M said...

I have three printed cakes on order from Amazon. Friday night, I will be at Barnes and Noble oohing and ahhing as I peruse more printed cake. I am tired of looking at the computer screen, so I have a date with more printed cake. Everyone have a nice weekend.

CNu said...

Now Prof.Sistah.Joyce.M - you must understand that I still agree with most of what you write, but this ain't personal, it's professional. Where you and I differ is that I've spent four years reuniting kcpublicschools with the kcpubliclibrary, getting library cards in the hands of 17,000 kids, unique and differentiated services to the same kids from the library online, first public school district to join the greater metropolitan library consortium and provide the levels of access that existed 30 years ago when the two institutions were joined at the hip and even occupied the same building.



I'll see if I can dig up some history of how and why the library and the school district (which founded the library in 1863) institutionally divorced one another. I don't propose radical modifications to the educational ecosystem lightly. I propose them in the context of serving as a volunteer reading and technology instructor for 25 years, and having brought nearly a million dollars of federal grant funding to the table thanks to innovative approaches to literacy for which I was personally and uniquely responsible.



I'm a little disappointed that you read me so incorrectly and evidently didn't follow the Marie Antoinette allusion very faithfully, but suffice it to say that the overwhelming majority of the constituents I serve don't own any books at all, don't make use of the library resources placed at their disposal, and that the innovative approaches I'm working on are data and hard-won personal experience driven. If they had the types of support at home for old fashioned literacy that your daughter is blessed to have, then I wouldn't be doing this work and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

CNu said...

please excuse me, I have to turn my attention to the Houghton Mifflin solutions architect talking about how she believes that innovative approaches to literacy can be achieved. (^;

Joyce M said...

Actually, I am not taking it personally. I was just being droll. I am concerned about the lack of literacy. Many predominately black schools here have empty libraries. But, books are cheaper than video games. Again, this is where the parents make the choices. My daughter doesn't have a video game console. She is not wedded to the net. I have parental controls and time restrictions set on the computer. The only social networking site she uses is twitter. My daughter has also voiced health concerns about spending too much time on the computer and uses it as supplementary tool--not the end all and be all of her educational experience. We do tire at looking at a computer screen. We buy a lot of books. But, I don't have a Nook device. If my husband wants to take a book to work for reading during his downtime--fine. If my daughter gets flour or molasses on a cookbook--fine. But, to handle an electronic device like that--not fine. We can pick and choose publishing companies, titles, authors and editions to fill our library. If you look at the electronic version of Microsoft's dictionary, you will find our historical black figures replaced by people like Madonna. What did we do after Hurricane Ike when we had no electricity--read. Many books are now printed on recyclable paper. They can be passed from one person to another. What will happen to these devices--they will add more cancer causing pollution to already polluted planet. http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804/video/video_index.html In my household, we try to limit the use of electronic devices. We don't run out and get the latest device. This is Halo, a game my daughter has never played. http://www.amazon.com/Halo-Combat-Evolved-Xbox/dp/B00005NZ1G Notice the price. This is The Caine Mutiny, a movie we have in our video library. It teaches some really important lessons about life and people. This scene is apropos to our education system and our teachers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw6gwGawbXA One is $50 at Amazon and the other $18. Barnes and Noble classics start at $4.95 a book. There are also anthology books that can be bought used a lower price. Anybody ever heard of a book drive? We have them here. Half-price books has donation bins for children's books. My daughter has donated books she grew out of. I fear we are on a slippery slope where the number of students in a class will grow, the qualifications for teaching will be set back and a few Oligarchs will decide what our children learn. A barely literate populace is easier to control. Marie Antoinette never said, "Let them eat cake."

CNu said...

I am concerned about the lack of literacy. Many predominately black schools here have empty libraries. But, books are cheaper than video games. Again, this is where the parents make the choices.

This doesn't parse.

The libraries are empty because they've been defunded by administrators who made a conscious decision to pay themselves rather than direct those funds to the children's resources for which the funds were originally intended. Those same administrators probably also put certified teachers or teacher paraprofessionals into the library spot, rather than a librarian because they don't serve a library function any longer, and are instead glorified baby sitters who serve to increase teacher planning and prep time, and may even teach a supplementary class themselves.

This condition is epidemic across the public school country.

Parents certainly have nothing whatsoever to do with this specific set of 2nd/3rd line inheritor, self-serving, rather than constituent serving choice.

The topic of video game in the home is completely separate. But it may have had something to do with young, dysgenically fertile parents not having had much of a library experience themselves in those selfsame schools and consequently not valuing it or staunchly advocating for it.

I fear we are on a slippery slope where the number of students in a class will grow, the qualifications for teaching will be set back and a few Oligarchs will decide what our children learn.

lol, they're doing that now, mostly without the benefit of proper 21st century instructional delivery technologies - and practicing vulture capitalism on broken school districts in order to dominate and privatize these expenitures in an explicitly oligarchical fashion.

Rupert Murdoch has nothing whatsoever to do with any of this. Broad had his own politics - which if I'm not mistaken - are and have been explicitly democrat party leaning for decades.

Joyce M said...

Schools and parents can find money for sports, but not for academics. If some kids spent as much time on studying a potential profession that they spend on dribbling a ball or playing Grand Theft Auto, they could become proficient at something that would lead to employment or entrepreneurship. For the few that do become highly paid professional athletes--they are sucked dry by their business and law educated agents, managers, accountants and lawyers.


This is not about Murdoch's politics, it's about his business practices. I'm talking about the phone hacking scandal http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/19/world/europe/hacking-time-line and the latest lawsuit settlement http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/business/media/news-corp-agrees-to-139-million-settlement-with-shareholders.html?_r=0 I had a bad experience with The Learning Company--much cheaper workbooks worked better than expensive software. The purchase of the Learning company damaged Mattel and cost the CEO her job. http://digitalstrategies.tuck.dartmouth.edu/cds-uploads/case-studies/pdf/2002-1-0072.pdf Now that same failed company is part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Learning_Company

I remember when Charter Schools received the same hype. There are cases of charter schools taking the money and failing. One man took funding and enrolled students when he didn't even have a permanent building. The same parents that ran to the charter schools because they couldn't be bothered to participate actively in their child's education--later decried the fines and suspensions for the smallest infractions. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/27/marsha-godard-chicago-mother-fined_n_2562353.html & http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/03/chicago-charter-schools-rake-in-thousands-in-disciplinary-fees/ Now, Chicago is closing public schools in the black neighborhoods. The wrong people are on trial. It's still the parents fault. That being said, this is really not my fight. If the parents think computer notebooks will do a better job of educating their children than teachers and books, then that's their choice--more power to them. Give the other parents what they want. For me and mine, it will still be the sage on the stage and printed cake.

CNu said...

The parents haven't been consulted. The decisions are being made by administrators with their own professional agendi and through the lens of their own generational biases.

I'll stick with my percipient daughter's assessment of the situation because she straddles both worlds and approaches, and, because she's facing off against genuinely difficult and complex subject matter in a highly competitive context.

As for poor Houghton Miflin, they didn't have a prayer, resting as they are on their print publishing laurels and coming to the eText and digital supplementary and interactive support game three days late and three dollars shorttive resources game three

CNu said...

The reason the public schools are failing is threefold.

1. The past 30-40 years quality of the administration and faculty. Summarized earlier here http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2013/06/american-political-science-worth.html

2. Compound the effects of the above on three generations of progressively declining socio-economic constituencies - defunding and removal of close and competent parent and professional monitoring and governance. .Best documented here: http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2013/06/american-political-science.html - the loss of the professional and managerial class denizens of formerly segregated communities was a devastating and irreversible loss leading to three generations of successively dysgenic and increasingly heritable socio-economic and cultural fail.

3. Full conversion of the public school districts from constituent serving institutions to economic honey-pots - now in national scale vulture capitalist free-fall (or as the higher academic limp-wrists are fond of putting it, "neoliberal" economic freefall) - exemplary case in point here: http://www.broadcenter.org/academy/

Charters became popular because they at least provide the illusion of some degree of parental control, and, they afford an escape from the increasingly unsafe and chaotic confinement of larger, more indifferent, and more dysfunctional public schools. Charters can be a little selective about who they let in the door, thereby keeping the purely disruptive riff-raff at bay.

Joyce M said...

Executives at Amplify predict an $80 million dollar operating loss. "Executives at Amplify, which projects an operating loss of about $80 million for this fiscal year, said they are confident school districts will want to spend on hardware. Amplify's sister company, News America Inc, this week donated $250,000 to support a slate of candidates running for the Los Angeles school board. Klein, Amplify's CEO, has given $25,000 from his own pocket to back the slate.

In its first quarter of existence, The Daily, News Corp's paid subscription-only iPad newspaper has cost Rupert Murdoch and Co. about $10 million. According to Paid Content, News Corp chalks the loss up to "investment costs because the app has only just gone paid." Sites that offer The Daily's content for free, such as The Daily: Indexed Tumblr, probably don't help either. The Daily contributed to News Corp's a recent drop in operating income seen in its publishing division, from $82 million to $36 million. "U.K. and Australian newspapers advertising revenue also fell, newsprint costs increased and the Integrated Marketing Services division turned in lower earnings while also paying out a further $125 million to settle a lawsuit."

Barnes & Noble Inc. shares fell Thursday after the retailer said that it expects losses from its Nooke-reader business to be larger in 2013 than last year. Barnes & Noble said Wednesday after the market closed that it expects Nook media revenue of less than $3 billion. It also anticipates a loss for the unit from earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to exceed the $262 million loss recorded in its 2012 fiscal year.



If this new revolution becomes a big money loser and the vulture capitalist flee, then what? But, again, not my fight....just looking at it from another point of view.

Joyce M said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/technology/a-classroom-software-boom-but-mixed-results-despite-the-hype.html?pagewanted=all & http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?pagewanted=all Now, I'm going to shut down the computer for today and rest my eyes.

CNu said...

Devil's always in the details Sistah Joyce.

LAUSD (like a number of district's in your great state) is one of many (not too bright) large urban districts that rushed into the purchase of devices, and devices preferred by status-conscious administrators and consumers, long before having ironed out a set of goals, designated curriculum and content, done comprehensive training of teachers (aka professional development) in the use of these technologies as teaching tools, and then finally, after laying all that groundwork, distributing devices to children to serve as information consumption and production tools. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23489311/lausd-spending-30-million-buy-30-000-ipads?source=most_emailed

You would be absolutely ASTONISHED at the number of school districts who brought the device cart waaaaaay ahead of the content, curriculum, instructional capability horse. This failing signifies the lack of basic professional competence and operational grasp of the well-dressed "fake it till you make it" crowd presiding over many public school districts.

It also exemplifies and illustrates the way in which vendors view and exploit school districts as economic honeypots.

The LAUSD is going to be an epic fail because there's really no way to centrally manage, locate, support, and secure iPads on an enterprise scale, and these 1-to-1 device initiatives are the single largest end-point rollouts being done across any industry vertical at this time. (Turkey is intent on doing a nation-wide rollout within the next two years to all its school children) - I guarantee you that iPads will be nowhere in sight for that extravaganza.

CNu said...

Printed cake is a somewhat loaded metaphor given the criminally extortionate profits exacted by publishers for textbooks. They are quite literally perfect analogs to record companies whose bread and butter was vinyl albums (why the album format?) until compact disc's and mp3 ushered in the end of their business model and domination of the music industry. http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2012/12/pearson-is-for-dayyum-sure-loath-to.html

http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2012/04/3-major-publishers-sue-open-education.html

http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2012/12/libraries-and-e-lending-publishers-are.html

http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2012/12/it-doesnt-matter-what-ebooks-cost-to.html

Printed cake is no longer cognitive object as much as cognitive bottleneck due to the business model of those entities which produce and distribute books.

Africom Expelled From Niger Just Like Little French Bishes...,

abcnews  |   On Saturday, following the meeting, the junta’s spokesperson, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, said U.S. flights over Niger’s ter...