Flipping to a new pedagogy for online and mobile learning

I’ll begin by repeating some of my earlier comments on Ruth Skillen’s (2012) “Freudian Flip” post in which the author supports the idea that “flipping” is much more than simply flipping some “thing” out of the synchronous classroom environment.  Skillen (2012) states rather than simply define a framework for flipping content out of the classroom that we should attempt to “flip our pedagogy”.

Through my own experiences and our class and group discussions, I’m becoming more and more convinced that flipping the classroom can be defined as a need to find a “different” approach to teaching and learning in the digital age. No surprise, after all isn’t that what we are all trying to define though our work in EDUC 5103? To flip the classroom then might just be the start of a move to that “different” approach. Some of our discussion topics in class and various blogs seem to reveal what might be key elements in a flip to a new approach. Three of these key elements are; a move to a purely student-centric model of teaching and learning; assessments and feedback that provide a meaningful indicator for each individual student; and learning materials that are accessible anytime, anywhere, through a variety of digital and social mediums. If we can deliver on those three key elements, we may just find ourselves in a flipped classroom environment and one step closer to defining a new pedagogy for the digital age. (Dougherty, 2012)

There was a lot of conversation in class the other night that focused on trust and motivation.  If we are to embrace a student-centric approach, or as Anderson (2008a) argues, “learning-centred” (p. 47) we have to find some way to foster the trust and motivation required by learners.  As learners interact with and adjust the content, and apply their knowledge of course content, both synchronously and asynchronously, they have to feel empowered to take responsibility for their own learning.  Learners have to feel comfortable in an environment where they can access content directly, anytime/anywhere and rely less on obtaining “the answer” from the teacher.

I believe that this could be achieved by encouraging the learner to reflect on their learning, possibly by performing a self-assessment of their learning to a predefined point in the course, or to a specific learning goal as defined by the learner at the beginning of the course.  With the realization of how and when their individual learning occurs, the learner may begin to accept more responsibility for their own learning.  They should begin to realize that the motivation to learn comes from within, not as directed or “instructed” by the teacher.  As motivation to accept responsibility for one’s own learning increases, so should the learner’s trust that this new approach will satisfy their learning needs.  This isn’t wildly different from what I have experienced myself in the M.Ed. program.  Some of my most powerful learning experiences have originated through my own interactions with, and contributions or adjustments to, the content and through my own application of my newly acquired content knowledge through class and group discussions and writing.

Looking at Anderson’s (2008a) model it seems to me that one area that might be expanded upon is in the student – student interaction component of the model.  Perhaps it could be an expansion of the description of student – student interaction that includes self-reflection of their learning; or it could be an additional component that overlaps all interaction paths and both community of inquiry and independent learning, as indicated by my addition to Anderson’s (2008a) model in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: A model of online learning that includes a student – student reflective interaction.  Adapted from “Towards a Theory of Online Learning” by T. Anderson 2008 in Anderson, T. (Ed.), The Theory and Practice of Online Learning (p. 61). Edmonton, AB: AU Press.  

I agree that we may not yet be able to define a theory for online/mobile learning; in fact as technology advances we may not be able to define such a theory for some time.  As Anderson (2008b) states, “we are at the early stages in the technological and pedagogical development of online learning” (p. 361).  In the meantime, maybe we should all start to consider flipping content out of synchronous classrooms.  The newly found affordance of time in the classroom could be better purposed by working with students to help build their motivation and level of trust leading to an acceptance of the responsibility for their own learning.

References:

Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson (Ed.),  The Theory and Practice of Online Learning (pp. 45-74). Edmonton, AB: AU Press.

Anderson, T. (2008b). Teaching in an online context. In T. Anderson (Ed.),  The Theory and Practice of Online Learning (pp. 343-365). Edmonton, AB: AU Press.

Dougherty, K. (2012, June 11). One thought on “A Freudian flip” [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://flippingtheclassroom.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/a-freudian-flip/#comments

Skillen, R. (2012, June 11). A Freudian flip [Web log post]. Retrieved from  https://flippingtheclassroom.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/a-freudian-flip/

What to flip?

Something has to change in my classroom.  It is clear that students are growing less interested in lectures and more interested in finding “the answer” for a specific concept that they are being asked to apply though a lab assignment.  I’m not convinced that a digital lecture will do the trick either.  The lecture itself is done as a teaching method and needs to be replaced with an approach that will be engaging for the students and their learning, inside and outside of the classroom.

In a recent article in University Affairs, Alan Slavin (2012) argues that increased face-to-face instruction is the only way to achieve continued success by our traditional “bricks-and-mortar” colleges and universities.  Slavin cites Mazur’s Peer Instruction: A User’s Manual (1996) as his source for a teaching method that when applied to Slavin’s own discipline of physics, shows a dramatic increase in student engagement in the learning.  The lecture materials are reviewed by students prior to class, rather than delivered by the instructor as a lecture, with an aim of providing class time for a structured discussion on the lecture topic.  This isn’t just simply reading the chapter before the lecture, what he describes is a class where the students come prepared to discuss the material with each other, with the help of guiding questions from the instructor but minimal additional participation by the instructor.  The instructor’s role is simply to provide a framework for student-to-student discussion or “peer instruction” and correct any misconceptions along the way.  This is not dissimilar to our own learning environment in EDUC 5103, which confirms for me that the concept of face-to-face should not be restricted to only physical environments.  Face-to-face, by my experience, should extend to any digital environment that permits real-time, or synchronous, face-to-face interactions.  I wonder if François owns a copy of Mazur’s (1996) Peer Instruction that I might be able to borrow sometime.

“Research has shown that the conceptual understanding of students taught interactively improves twice as much as when they are taught with conventional lecturing, even for superb lecturers”, (Slavin, 2012).  I can’t think of any reason why this same approach could not work in my own classroom.  The key is to make materials available to the students, accessible online, that present the concepts in a way that is engaging to students, not simply recording a lecture.  With that lecture time freed up in my class, I can then let the students explore the concepts by simply providing a framework for application and monitor their progress toward success.  In short, I’m not simply looking at flipping the lecture out of the class; I’m eliminating the lecture all together.  The discussions and group interactions should prove to be just as fruitful for my students’ learning as the discussion and exchange of ideas with my colleagues and classmates has proven to be for me, at work and in the classroom.  In fact, I know from years of experience, that there is much that I can learn from my students.  Given all the extra time to spend on this new process, my own learning will also benefit greatly.  What am I flipping then?  This constitutes a flip of the classroom where the student novice becomes the student expert and my role as instructor expert morphs into that of a guiding novice, learning right along with the students.

References:

Mazur, E. (1996). Peer instruction: A user’s manual. San Francisco, CA: Benjamin Cummings.

Slavin, A. (2012, May 30). How will our bricks-and-mortar universities survive? They must capitalize on their strengths in personal interaction. University Affairs. Retrieved from http://www.universityaffairs.ca/how-will-our-bricks-and-mortar-universities-survive.aspx

Flipping the Classroom Video

Created by Matt, Ruth, Thom, Gareth & Kevin…

 

Flipping out of my class, Part 2

My motivation for covering lecture material outside of the lecture classroom was to build a greater understanding of the instruction being presented at the lecture to complete that week’s lab assignment.  With that deeper understanding of the material I was able, if necessary, to ask informed questions about the supporting concepts that would bring meaning to my application of the knowledge through completing the lab.  This was not a formalized approach by the teacher, but in his mind, the best use of the classroom time for students.  His informal “flip” of his classroom spared the students the pain of a lecture on material they could easily take in on their own time, outside of class time.  This left him with more time in class to help students who understood the concepts, through successful completion of the assignment. 

At this point of my career I find myself seriously questioning why I haven’t attempted to emulate that approach, as anomalous as it was, in my own practice.  Like so many of us in higher education, I have spent numerous class hours lecturing to students on concepts just as I was when I was a student.  The lecturing has continued to occupy a considerable amount of my assigned class time, even though, I find myself often frustrated with the clear lack, on the part of the students, of synthesis of those lecture concepts as evidenced through their assignments and tests.  I consider myself to be a rather dynamic lecturer.  I have a good sense of humour and I do, on a consistent basis, engage many students in conversation on the concepts.  The problem is that it is always the same students who are engaged, and as a group those engaged students are fewer and fewer each semester. 

This blog, the conversations with my group, and other colleagues, regarding flipping the classroom, have brought me to the realization that many of my students have already flipped out of my class by tuning out of my lectures.  That in itself is not a problem as I do provide a rich online repository of lecture notes, demos and supplemental material for students to access anytime, anywhere.  The real problem is that they are not always engaging with those materials either.  There is a growing sense across all faculty members in my program that if we give students anything to read longer than a short bulleted list they will not bother.  Would they view recorded lectures?  Why would they if they don’t tune in, in person?  Is a lecture of any kind necessary, recorded or live? 

Should I consider formalizing the “flip” that my SAAD professor informally implemented years ago?  The additional time provided by flipping the lecture out of my class would enable me to work with students more directly, one-on-one and in small groups.  We could work together building an understanding of the concepts delivered online while working through the synthesis and application of those concepts.  I can’t help but believe it to be a much more constructive use of my time, and the students’.  And along the way, the students might just start to gain a greater appreciation for, and fully engage with, the materials available to them online.   

Flipping out of my class

The idea of taking the traditional lecture out of the classroom is not a new one, and not necessarily an idea that is driven at all by technology and the web.  As a mature student attending college a number of years back, I had a handful of teachers who would, on a weekly basis, impart to the class their knowledge of a specific subject area through relatively engaging lectures.  Sometimes they would take to the blackboard and draw images accompanied by copious directional arrows and key words that all somehow reinforced the point they were trying to get across to the class.  I would write extensive notes throughout those lectures in an attempt to capture all that was being said.  I would madly copy anything that was drawn or written on the board in an effort to lock those treasures away in my notebook for later review. 

Some of those lectures would result in many pages of notes and as such would receive my “great lecture” stamp of approval when kibitzing with others in the class afterward.  Many students could not agree with me and would simply say, “I have no idea what he was taking about” while I would happily reply, “I have it all down in my notes”.  What that really meant was, I had some reading and synthesising to do that night if I was to truly understand what was delivered in that “great lecture”.  Typically the review of my notes would result in another page or two of “notes of understanding” to accompany my lecture notes.  I found that using this process I was able to stay on top of the concepts delivered through lectures and apply my knowledge of those concepts to class assignments and projects throughout the term.  As a student, I put a lot of work into those lectures, they were great!

In my third year, I found myself in a systems analysis and design course, a keystone course for application and system developers.  The course was taught by a teacher who was by all accounts brilliant.  To access this teacher’s brilliance during one of his lectures all you had to do was understand what he was talking about and then ask a relevant question.  The problem was that his lectures had very little to do with the concepts supporting the relevant content of the course, and more to do with the process for successfully completing that week’s lab using a software engineering package called Rational Rose.  I found that my system of capturing great lectures was not working.  I had the step-by-step instructions to creating a working solution for that week’s lab that would garner a top grade, but I didn’t really understand the concepts behind the work I was doing.  If asked to complete a test based on my knowledge of the concepts of systems analysis and design I would likely fail.  I wasn’t growing the knowledge I felt I needed to succeed in the course or in my program.

Enter the course textbook; a book that was never referenced by the teacher in any of his lectures, and any student I talked to about the book would quickly dismiss it as too difficult to follow.  It was a horribly terse book to read but with patience, and through taking notes on my reading, it became a great book for building my understanding of the subject area.  I soon found it completely opened up the world of systems analysis and design to me and my understanding of the subject improved exponentially.  I didn’t really need to attend the class anymore as I already had my own “great lecture” notes that I would compile outside of class time.  

Of course I did go to class, and I would listen to the lecture, between other tasks of course.  I would ask questions from time to time that would make the teacher’s face light up as he produced an answer followed by my own follow up or confirmation of understanding.  Some of my friends in the class would ask afterward; “do you really get what he’s talking about?”  I did get it, in fact that class became one of my favourite classes.  I was building my own understanding of the content, on my own time, in the comfort of my own home, normally on weekends.  Better yet, it became a class where I could take it easy, ask a few confirmation questions and get some work done on “great lecture” notes for one of my other classes.  I had flipped out of my class. 

Years later, I had the honour of working with that teacher for a few years before he retired.  I confessed to him my tuning out of his lectures because I had found the textbook.  He told me that he felt his class time was better spent on delivering instructions for completion of tasks and one-on-one help on those tasks rather than lecturing on concepts.  He felt that the knowledge he would deliver in any lecture could be accessed by any student who wished to on their own time using the textbook or any other resource they could find.  I wonder if he had heard of the flipped classroom.

…Stay tuned for Flipping out of my class part two