A big issue concerning flipped classrooms is the availability of technology. As we cannot assume that all students have sufficient access at home, we first must be able to determine this. Assuming that technology is available, the implementation of flipped classrooms is certainly worth discussing. I believe there are many arguments for and many against and at the moment, I have not taken a firm position on one side or the other.
I believe a very important part of teaching is interaction - both student-student and student-teacher. With flipped classrooms where much of the material is conveyed online, teachers are unable to see where students are having trouble. They are unable to see the looks of excitement when a student grasps a concept nor can they see the looks of confusion when they do not. Can this be addressed in the classroom portion of the flipped classroom? This is a question that I will ask myself continually as I think about the idea of flipped classrooms.
On student-student interaction, flipped classrooms, where the lesson is present online at home, frees up class time which can be used for a greater variety of activities. This can include group work and other activities that allow students to bounce ideas off each other. Concerning this, I can see this being made less effective with students allowed to move at different paces as we will now discuss.
Student are free to move through lectures at their own pace. This means that students who easily understand the material can move ahead while those who need more time are able to rewind and spend more time on topics they have trouble with. An issue with this is related to what was said above - the teacher is not there to determine why the student might be having trouble. Is re-watching a video going to help a student understand better? I believe that sometimes it can but in most cases, it won't. Again, I wonder if this is an issue that can be addressed in the classroom?
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