The Technology Needed to Flip Your Classroom

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many schools to look at online resources in new ways. It also drove many teachers to develop their programs to work when classroom instruction was not possible. The challenges of using Zoom, Google Meet, Google Drive, iCloud, Drop- Box and OneDrive to teach students were many.

Some schools and their teachers overcame those challenges with ease while others found themselves to be less than prepared, either because of poor infrastructure or limited computer skills. Regardless of where on the spectrum of “I got this” to “I am completely lost” teachers fell, they all longed to be back in the classroom, faceto- face with their students.

Now that education has returned to the “new normal” and classes are once again taught in-person, some of the methods used to overcome the challenges of remote learning now show merit for in-person learning. Some educators have found that having the students receive the lecture portion of their curriculum in some online manner frees up the classroom portion for other educational purposes.

When students have already received the information being taught, class time can now be used for more direct teacher-student interaction and more group discussion of the material, and it provides more productive time to accomplish the tasks associated with the learning, the homework. Called a Flipped Classroom, students can now get the lecture at home using some of the technology brought to bear by the pandemic. That leaves the classroom time for what teachers have always wanted – more time for discussion, interaction, task completion, personal support and successful learning by every student.

How to deliver the information to the student at home depends on the curriculum and the teacher. The curriculum would dictate whether that information is best passed along via text-based document, text and graphic-based visuals, all graphic-based visuals, audio recordings, video recordings or some combination of two or more. The same would be true of how the student might respond to receiving that portion of the curriculum, be it responses on a document or survey, or a visual confirmation.

The other aspect that would affect how that information is shared would be the comfort level of the teacher with the technology required. The pandemic showed us that some curriculum and some educators were not meant for this type of educational infrastructure, but everyone can learn and adapt.

To employ the Flipped Classroom concept, the teacher provides the lesson material to the students in some format online. The format may change as the type of information in the lesson changes, but the way that the student accesses the online lesson should remain consistent. Any of the online document management platforms will work: Google Drive, Google Classroom, iCloud, OneDrive, DropBox, etc.

Students should have access to the material, understand the organization of that material (which folders to find what when), and have an individual method to respond or share. Having student folders for each student, using a consistent naming syntax for both the folders and the documents, gives every student a place to put anything they create knowing that the teacher can find it easily and the assurances that they will receive credit for their work.

Many teachers who are using the Flipped Classroom concept provide their lessons in video format. All of the devices used every day have the camera, microphone and free software needed to record those video lessons. They don’t have to be hour-long presentations scripted and rehearsed beforehand. Set up your recording device (phone, tablet, laptop) so it records you at the front of your classroom, press “record” and give the lecture using your chalk or whiteboard as you would in class. What might take 25 minutes in class with interruptions and hesitations, takes less time to record. Upload the recording and provide the students with any supplemental documentation, and let them know when they need to watch and read.

Most teachers use the Flipped Classroom method because of what it does to enhance their classroom time, making it more productive. They find that a higher percentage of their students complete their homework successfully, understand the concepts taught better, and become more willing to participate in discussions about the material being presented. The students find that they can schedule their viewing or reading of the material to fit their schedules better with the added bonuses of being able to pause their learning if a distraction comes their way and be able to review the material a second or third time, something impossible with a standard classroom lecture.

While not for every class and every teacher, Flipped Classrooms work very well when the teacher is comfortable producing the necessary material, the students have the access to technology needed (more and more common now), and the curriculum lends itself to being shared in an online manner. This concept can be used for some subjects for all or a majority of the school year while others can successfully use it for individual or specific units. Simply having an entire class period to have students discuss a unit’s information instead of sitting silent while it is being presented is worth giving Flipped Classrooms a try.