Flip boring lectures upside down
Presentation software such as PowerPoint and Prezi have improved over the years, but even the fanciest transitions and animations cannot change the fact that presentations can be a dull way for students to learn information. Rarely do presentations or lectures require students to practice higher learning skills from Bloom’s Taxonomy. In fact, studies have shown that lectures generate about as much brainwaves as watching a reality television show: next to none.
MIT professor of media arts and sciences Rosalind Picard conducted a study in which she fitted her students with wristbands that recorded skin conductance as a measure of emotion and cognition levels. The sensors recorded strong spikes when students were in labs or at home studying and doing homework. The sensors recorded flatlines during time spent in class listening to lectures. (For more on the study: PDF)
Author and educator Sir Ken Robinson says the modern-day classroom, with its focus on lectures, is modeled after the intellectual culture of the enlightenment, in which the master taught the apprentice, often through rote memorization. This “sage on the stage” method of teaching is not at all effective in today’s information age. Why would a student choose to listen to a lecture when they can search the Internet and find videos, games, and interactive websites about the very same topic? Classical classrooms, with their focus on lectures, are boring today’s kids to death. Robinson says that it’s time to change educational paradigms to better suit the modern world.
The “sage on the stage” method of teaching is no longer effective in today’s information age.
According to Picard’s study, students are doing the higher level thinking that will “cement” the topic in their memory when they are home alone, without any coaching or supervision from a mentor or instructor. This is the time they would benefit most from someone to guide them.
One way we can work to change the educational parading is by flipping our classroom. In a flipped classroom, the instructor records brief video segments student can watch at home which replaces the need for in-class lectures. The teacher then saves the valuable face-to-face time in the classroom for interaction and activities that generate higher level thinking. The class or traditional lecture becomes homework and the homework becomes class. It’s flipped. The teacher’s role is no longer “sage on the stage” but “guide on the side.”
So what should you do when flipping your classroom?
There are a few things you should remember when you decide to flip your class:
- The video you create should be short and to the point; it is not effective to record a lengthy lecture. Salmon Khan discusses this in his article for Time Magazine
- A short video is most useful for topics students typically struggle with or for teaching something that is integral to a student’s success in the class.
- A short video should be coupled with a low-risk assessment, something simple a student must complete for participation credit. The video could be coupled with an assessment in the Learning Management System, for example. Or you could use an online tool like EdPuzzle or Zaption to create an online assessment embedded in the video itself. Studies show that many low-risk assessments are more effective than a few high-risk assessments for students.
- Videos tend to address lower level thinking skills in Bloom’s taxonomy. Any time you “flip” your class with video, the video should be accompanied with intensive activities during the next face-to-face meeting. These activities should address higher level thinking skills. This is the real benefit of flipping a classroom: you have more time for discussion, hands-on activities, coaching and mentoring.
One additional benefit to recording short video presentations is that students can play them back multiple times and review the content more effectively.
With flipped classrooms, the teacher takes on the role of coach or mentor during in-class time. The teacher can more readily move around the room to view how students work, discover which students needs additional help, give feedback. etc. This replaces the passive in-class lecture. The lecture takes place before the students come to class.
