After reading a few articles about the flipped classroom it brings me back to discussions that we had in OLTD 501 while doing our slideshare project. In this project we were presented with slides and were asked to write a script to go with them. Through this my partner and I got to thinking about why can’t we watch lectures instead of listening to and attending them in real time so that if we need clarification or reiteration of a point, we can just rewind and press play. In the Vancouver Sun article -http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Flipped+classrooms+create+magic+controversy+schools/7202690/story.html
– the teacher discusses how flipping her classroom made the results and student’s success ‘magical’. I can see how this is possible when they are able to listen to and re-listen to lectures at their own pace. The article also  pointed out that it allowed for more time for collaboration and discussions as the need for listening to a lecture was erased; as a big supporter of inquiry based and community of learners based education, this is something that really appeals to me. David Wees states “I am trying to wean my students from the idea that I have to be in charge of everything” and I wish more teachers felt this way – able to give up some of their control. The Vancouver Sun article also states: “Proponents of the flipped classroom say it helps teachers transform from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side” and forces students to become active learners” and through this I have seen first-hand the amazing work that can be accomplished when students are afforded this opportunity.

I think Jonathan Martin describes it best when he says: “Flip your instruction so that students watch and listen to your lectures… for homework, and then use your precious class-time for what previously, often, was done in homework: tackling difficult problems, working in groups, researching, collaborating, crafting and creating. Classrooms become laboratories or studios, and yet content delivery is preserved. Flip your instruction so that students watch and listen to your lectures… for homework, and then use your precious class-time for what
previously, often, was done in homework: tackling difficult problems, working in groups, researching, collaborating, crafting and creating. Classrooms become laboratories or studios, and yet content delivery is preserved (http://www.connectedprincipals.com/archives/3367).”

My big worry would be that I will get hired somewhere that does not support this model of learning and would
fight me on presenting my classroom in this manner. I am lucky right now to have an online class and therefore my students are doing everything on their own time and pace anyways so this would help me to get started on this and have a firmer base if/ when I decide to go into a public (face-to-face) school. I have never heard of this model of learning and teaching but I am glad that I have read it because now I am “Flipped”!

To be honest, I had never even heard about this shift in practices to open until we signed up for the moodle course. I was very curious as to what it all meant and what doors it might open to allow for new opportunities. I
have heard of MOOCs before so I guess I had a minimal amount of background knowledge but it was very enlightening reading the posts, tweets and links as well as watching the videos (especially “open access explained”) that had been posted in the moodle site. What struck me the most was the move that British Columbia is leading towards open textbooks. My first response to learning about this was“why didn’t they do this when I was in school and save me the money?” but that quickly subsided and I was very excited to see the changes that will be made and hopefully allow for more learning to take place as students have one less (or at least partially less) expense to pay when starting to attend post secondary schools.

I am very interested in learning more about the open learning approach. I know that Alec Couros does a lot of work with MOOCs and I follow him on twitter I am seeing many things he is tweeting gain my attention. I am also finding a lot of tweets from #ceetmeet very interesting and the most recent is a website link to someone’s suggestion about how open textbooks and etextbooks might be set up for the greatest student success(http://davidwees.com/content/forget-future-heres-textbook-i-want-now). It still shocks me that having just graduated there is still so much to learn about the shifting paradigms in education and I would like to think that this course is allowing us to “lead the way”. I am quickly seeing that a lot has changed just since I graduated not even two years ago and it makes me wonder how much the face of education might change in the next two
years.


With using a lot of inquiry based learning in my previous
‘brick-and-mortar’classrooms it would be interesting to see where it would go
with the integration of student created OERs.  I think that this is something that I
will be looking into more and it is a very intriguing topic for me but if anyone
has an opinion I would love to hear it!