In December 2019, I made a presentation about the importance of the flipped classroom. Our classrooms are changing and our students are evolving into technology-centric generation, therefore the importance of the traditional classroom is diminishing.
What is a traditional classroom?
A traditional classroom is when a teacher provides all the information to the student via lecture or presentation.
What is a Flipped Classroom?
The best way to describe a flipped classroom is “Do the classwork at home and homework in class.”
Now what that means is that the teacher no longer becomes the “Lecturer” they become the facilitator. The theoretical or “lecture” component of the class is provided to the students before they come to the class. This could be via recorded videos, readings or any other digital material.
The classroom time is then spent in discussions and interactive sessions where the student-led classroom becomes a space to share ideas and thoughts about the topic or to do group projects/assignments.
Why is it important to change to a Flipped Classroom?
Perhaps the most important fact to understand is that Global Attention Span is drastically becoming slower every year. Source
For context, the average attention span of a Goldfish is 9 seconds.
Technology is making our attention span shorter
The time is here to embrace technology.
Gen-Z prefers learning from videos than printed books.
51% of YouTube users use YouTube videos to learn new things. Source
Students aged 14-23 showed:
- 59% picked YouTube as a preferred learning tool.
- 55% agreed that Youtube has contributed to their education.
- 47% spend 3+ hours a day on Youtube
- 47% preferred textbooks.
source
The most important thing to note is that Gen-z are independent learners. Only 29% prefer asking a teaching for help and 71% try to figure out on their own through online resources or friends/classmates. Which means that when provided with the resources, students prefer to find out answers to their queries themselves. As they have been immersed in technology since they are born, they are more comfortable navigating tech to find information.
Traditional
- No direct access to knowledge.
- Teacher acts as a lecturer.
- Students have little or no knowledge of the subject before class.
- Thought process is viewed during examination/tests
Flipped Classroom
- Direct access to knowledge
- Teacher acts as a coach/facilitator.
- Students have already prepared the subject before the class.
- Thought process is viewed in class.
How to Flip the Classroom?
There are various tools that can be used to make flipped classrooms easy to manage. Learning Management Systems (LMS) make it very easy to flip the classroom.
Some of the best Learning Management Systems are:
Disclaimer: The information presented is based on my experience and knowledge. I have not used all the softwares mentioned above, but I have researched about each software and have recommended it based on my understanding.
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