Tag: flipped

Ideas for concurrent classroom teaching

I found this resource from what I think is an unusual source – Forbes. The article identifies the challenges of teaching in a concurrent classroom. As I understand what is meant by concurrent as compared with a hybrid classroom, in a concurrent situation some students are always FTF and some always online. This would be the way I have taught my Instructional Design and Technology grad classes and I admit I never thought about the unique challenges of this arrangement. Concurrent can be contrasted with hybrid which means students rotate between being FTF and online. This arrangement seems what many K12 schools are planning for the Fall in order to reduce the number of students present in the physical classroom. Some issues are likely the same so it is worth reviewing the Forbes article for educators facing a hybrid arrangement in the Fall.

Problems:

The major problem in a concurrent arrangement is described as inequality of attention. This results from the limitations and predictable failures of being online (forgetting to mute, sound dropping out) and educator failures (tendency to focus on students in front of you, drifting out of the view of the camera).

Solutions:

Use a flipped classroom approach for any block of teacher presentation longer than 10 minutes. So students receive information presentation and demonstrations via video. The author then describe what happens with working synchronously as talk less and smile more.

Make frequent use of output-oriented breakout tasks. Students both in the FTF and online work in teams (learn how to do this in your video environment) on short duration tasks with the requirement of reporting a solution of position

Alternate gaze – Remember to focus both on the camera and students in front of you. I know this is an issue from personal experience. The article recommends even finding ways to remind yourself to do this. Calling on students is another way to do this. Call on students both FTF and online.

Asynchronous presentations – have student groups create short presentations on assigned topics/issues. Store links to these presentations in Google docs (note skills that would have to be developed). Assign students to these different presentations and ask that they add questions after reviewing the content.

The article notes that these could also be argued to be reasonable ideas for traditional classroom instruction.

P.S. – I use a social bookmarking system called Diigo. An interesting feature (the social part) is that you can designate entries for access by the public. There is a way to offer access to a specific entry in this collection and that is what I have added below. The free Diigo extension must be installed to see the annotations of another Diigo user.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedladd/2020/06/19/optimizing-concurrent-classrooms-teaching-students-in-the-room-and-online-simultaneously/#3d6dad1c3451

What you see when viewing a shared Diigo bookmark [with the Diigo extension] should look something like the following.

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Flipped Classroom …. blah, blah, blah

The snow is falling making it unwise for me to leave the house. Hence, it is a good time to generate a blog post.

The online education community I follow seems enamored of the “flipped classroom”. Of course and when I am unable to edit my own skepticism, they seem enamored of anything shiny and new that offers them something to talk about. It can be difficult to come up with topics on a regular basis. However, frequent mention of anything should not be considered equivalent to the discovery of an important innovation. Perhaps it has just been a slow news week, year, etc.

Here is my take on what can potentially be “flipped”.

The core idea in the flipped classroom appears to be that class time is dominated by instructor presentations. Some go as far as to claim BORING classroom presentations. The solution it seems is to take advantage of technology to record such presentation and make them available before (and after) class. Hence, students can carefully review this content ahead of time and then come to class prepared to ask questions and engage in deep discussion.

We used to call this expectation “read the textbook before tomorrow’s class”, but perhaps the personal video presentations prepared by the average classroom educator would be superior the content generated by the textbook author.

Here is what I really think. It would seem helpful to consider what is likely necessary for successful learning. I am talking in a practical way here – not how you or your brilliant and self motivated relatives prefer to learn. I have always liked a simple instructional design model proposed by Alessi and Trollip. They suggested that formal learning can be understood as a four stage model:

  • exposure to information
  • guided consideration of the information to assure understanding
  • extended practice to provide fluency and increase retention
  • assessment

If these stages make sense (I think they do), the challenge is then to determine how the stages will be accomplished by the largest possible members of a learning group. BTW – the stages are sequential only in some instances and feedback loops are frequently a prudent course of action.

You can attach your own labels to the stages. This is a productive exercise. Perhaps stage three might be “homework” to you. Perhaps you believe class time can be used to meet stages 2,3 and 4. My point is that the translation of these requirements into activities and the association of learning time with each activity is how we should be thinking. It is essential to analyze instruction and learning experiences in this way. What is the most efficient and effective way to expose learners to new ideas? Is a recorded lecture the best way to do this? Can we count on learners carefully reviewing prerecorded online presentations? Will tests to be required to generate compliance? What should be done if 50% appear to have reviewed the content and 50% have not made the effort?

A post entitled “ The flipped classroom is a way TO the answers” offers somewhat similar in analysis. I would suggest a different title – The flipped classroom is a way to the questions.


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