Swapping Traditional Classrooms with Flipped Classrooms

Vinod Kakumanu
Sept. 21, 2019, 5:45 p.m.

A change is required for people to get more engaged in their day-to-day activities. People’s interests are constantly hit by monotony and they search for diversity. Education is a sector which requires great deal of enhancement to enlighten young minds. The remodelling of education has happened in the 21^st century with a shift from teacher acting as a sage on the stage to a guide on the side. The introduction of Flipped Classrooms has made it more feasible as well. Earlier, students were introduced to a new subject in the class by the teacher and they were given homework or assignments to complete it at home. Now, a slight shift is seen where students have to research on the topic before coming to class and are supposed to engage in classroom activities based on what they have understood. This is referred to as flipped classroom model where the main responsibility is on the students to accumulate information and the teachers would only act as a facilitator. As explained, it has made interaction a key element when flipping the classroom. When student’s have already gained knowledge prior to the class it is possible for them to dive deeper into it by asking questions or discussing as a group. Teachers would get a chance to observe students closely and check where they need more attention.

Strategies to Flip the Classroom

The “flipped” system demand students to play a lead role in preparing their homework. Otherwise this kind of model would lose its meaning. The main thing is that students have to play an active role in preparing their homework and for that teachers should motivate them or else they would get easily distracted. The teacher also has an option to create videos where they are explaining a subject and they can share it with students. The purpose is to help students according to their needs instead of giving them pressure with loads of work. This form allows teacher to get involved in creating courses, building quizzes, and making assessments which makes it user friendly and can have access to personalized content.

How a Flipped Lesson is Structured

There are various platforms where flipped lessons can be carried out systematically. Some flip lessons only require students to watch the video of the lecturer and demonstrate what they have understood in an assessment. But some holds on to have a series of lesson with components specially designed for them which encourage students to engage and explore the material given and apply it wherever needed to extend their knowledge. Various tools for flipped classrooms are:

Google Classroom: These are effective to deliver assignments to children and give feedback so that students can land at various tasks given by the teacher who could also guide them with goals, objectives regarding the assignment. A great space to distribute a chapter’s digital resources or other materials.
Edpuzzle: This is for instructional videos where teachers can put videos of lessons and track student’s performance. These videos can be accessed through iOS or android apps
Padlet: It provides an opportunity for students to reflect and review the content and also collaborate with other students by discussing and answering questions.
Quizizz: a platform to create gamified activities like quizz and assign these as homework which allows them to play which can be counted for their formative assessments.

These Individualized learning techniques is making its way on a fast pace to advocate enhanced pedagogical style of education which determine the future of the students.