After participating in the Google Hangout I became interested in how this

technology could be implemented into a "flipped" classroom. Therefore, I was

excited to find flipped classrooms as part of this week's lecture notes. Since
learning about the concept of flipped classrooms I have become increasingly
interested in the idea with a few reservations. I like that flipped classrooms
are more student directed, places where students can get more
individualized support, places where students have more access to learning
and their teachers and finally places where students are engaged in their
learning (http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-conversation-689.php.)
However, when I picture a flipped classroom, I see a room with no more than
15 self-motivated students who love learning. In the classrooms that I have
been in in PSI and PSII, with more than 25 students each, with huge gaps in
knowledge and motivation, I am not sure how one teacher will hope to
engage students in the work with so many "issues" to deal with. Also, how do
you differentiate the videos? It is possible to differentiate a worksheet or
project but trickier in the videos that students watch at home. Does the
teacher have several different videos assigned to different students?
Therefore, I can see this working with an International Baccalaureate (IB)
classroom (https://www.youtube.com/user/jloos33) of highly motivated learners but
not sure the practicality of it in our current classroom environment.
Another obstacle I see is getting parents engaged in the process as it
requires their children to spend a portion of the evening watching videos for
the next days' work. What if parents do not support their children or what if
there are a few kids who consistently do not watch their videos at home? I
like the idea of the flipped classroom but I feel like it would result in way
more work for students, parents and teachers. Perhaps rather than
revolutionize classrooms this way, we should be revolutionizing them by
allowing students to progress through school at their own pace rather than
by age-level (http://www.techlearning.com/default.aspx?tabid=100&entryid=3360). Not
to mention that the flipped classroom is limited in that it is still built on the
traditional model of learning (http://www.techlearning.com/default.aspx?
tabid=100&entryid=3360).

Online Classrooms
I love the idea of online learning. I like that it allows students to progress
through material at their own pace and allows for students to graduate early
if they like. I have several friends whose children do online learning because
they are involved in serious athletic activities. Their virtual classrooms allow
them to train all day and complete their school work in the evenings.
However, while the motivated students do well at online learning, I have also
seen the complete opposite where parents pay for their children to take an

ADLC class and it never gets done. It takes a tremendous amount of

dedication and motivation to get an online class finished. While they are
convenient, they are often not completed. Therefore, I think that while many
students can find success with online learning, the majority still benefit from
the social interaction of school and the face-to-face time with teachers. Here
are a few interesting reads on why e-learning needs to be reconsidered:
http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/topic/learning-technologies/why-elearning-doesn-twork/134473
http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/overview/weaknesses.asp

Blended Learning
While digital learning might not be the future for all education, I can see how
blended learning might work better. Giving students the ability to work from
home or come in for help from the teacher might make more sense. I could
imagine a classroom where students have lecture times during the week
(which could be student led or teacher led) and then work time that could be
completed at home or in the classroom. Based on students' levels of
motivation and cognitive ability, some students may spend the whole week
in school where others might only show up for the lecture parts. This would
allow classroom community to be created and give the weaker students
more one-on-one time with their teachers. This would also allow stronger
students to complete their work at home and use their extra time to work or
participate in extra-curricular activities. Here is an article about the benefits
of using blended learning (http://blended.online.ucf.edu/about/benefits-of-blendedlearning/). I took a graduate level class that was a blended learning class using
the online classroom software Blackboard. It was an excellent experience and
getting to know the other students during the face-to-face time helped us
better engage with each other online. Here is an article that talks about the
software Blackboard (https://www.blackboard.com/k12/blended-learning.aspx).
Final Thought
I believe that technology is the key to revolutionizing classrooms. However,
as mentioned above, the revolutionized classrooms cannot be based on the
old system. Imagine how great it would be for multi-aged students to be
learning at their own pace in a blended classroom. Sounds like educational
heaven to me.