Table of Contents
The ‘flip learning’ method is not just a fancy term. It is a very useful and effective way of learning. If you are a teacher, student, or parent of a child in school, you’ve probably heard of flipping learning. This article is focused upon understanding what is flipped learning and how you can get started with flipping your classroom.
What is flipped learning?
Flipped learning has been used by educators and learners for decades. The idea behind flipped learning is that students learn by watching short videos at home before they come to class. The teacher then spends time going more in-depth into the material, answering questions, and giving more examples. In this way, the focus of group learning gets shifted towards individual learning on the specialized topic.
Benefits of flipped learning
The flipped classroom, where you watch videos outside of class time, can have several advantages. These include:
- There are fewer disruptions from the distraction of a group class.
- Learners can learn at their own pace, without being held back by classmates who do not grasp certain concepts as quickly or thoroughly. Repeatedly watching segments explain difficult concepts in greater detail until they understand them.
- Learners will not necessarily know what their teacher plans to cover in class and thus will be more prepared because of your pre-class reading and viewing of related material.
- Flipped learning allows students to use their brains in different ways while they are learning new information. By seeing how concepts relate to each other through videos and reading materials outside of class, they are better able to understand how they fit into the big picture when they hear lectures and see demonstrations in person.
- The flipped classroom allows teachers to cover more material in class and save time for interactive activities
- Trying to understand something by reading it is not enough for some students. To learn and understand something, we need to see the practical application. The flip method helps to do this easily without having to take extra time out of the teacher’s busy schedule.
How to get started with flipped learning
The first step to flipping your classroom is to define your learning outcomes and make sure they are clear to everyone involved with your class. Learning outcomes should be specific and measurable so that students can know when they have achieved them. Be sure to include both short-term and long-term goals. For example:
For the short term, students may need to write a paragraph explaining how friction causes objects to slow down or stop when they move over an object like a rug or grass. A long-term goal for this same concept might be for students to take their understanding of friction and use it to design a toy car that travels across different surfaces at different speeds.
What do flipped classrooms require?
Flipping your classroom isn’t just about recording a lecture and calling it a day. It requires:
- A well-designed learning module consisting of instructional video or podcast.
- A set of clear instructions and guidelines for all.
- Students engaging with the material using discussion boards, blogs, or forums.
- An assignment that requires students to apply their knowledge in new and creative ways.
LMS (Learning Management System ) like Adobe Connect is an online platform that makes it convenient for teachers to post their videos or audios online and make it accessible to students. Students watch lectures at home or anywhere else where they have Internet access and then complete exercises or homework after watching the lectures. That makes it easy to integrate with flip learning.
Conclusion
Flip learning is the future of education. As a new teaching method, it pays more attention to the students’ needs, makes use of multimedia equipment and computer software and LMS can be used as a tool for the flipped classroom.
