The Flipped Classroom - from theory to practice

Stephen Bukin's is the first of two Flipped classroom presentations during the LTSIG day. Stephen started by talking about the origins of the flipped classroom with Bergman and Sams in the US and the now well-known Khan academy bei the fore-runners.

Proponents of e flipped classroom believe that this model helps struggling students and often helps with poor students. Stephen also believes that it helps over scheduled students.

Why flip your classroom? The model of schoolwork and homework was based on the requirements of the Industrial age and it may be about time for a change.

Stephen started by looking at his own classes and analyzing his own lessons. He is a traditional PPP.teacher but he felt that the students were not getting enough practice in his previous teaching  model. Another problem he had was continuous enrollment and with new students entering his classroom all the time, often with different levels, differentiation was difficult. This was why he thought that a possible solution was the flipped classroom model.

Using this model frees up the classroom time and allows a teacher to have more one-to-one time and can be more student-centred because the students decide how much time to spend on each video. He decided to start by making some demo screencast recordings and he collected feedback from the students and then reflected on the lessons and on what worked well with the videos that received the best feedback.

Although there's nothing wrong with putting a video camera in the classroom, Stephen decided to use screencast software. He started wi Jing, but this has now been discontinued, so he has switched to http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/. Two other tools that you can use are http://www.brainshark.com/mybrainshark and http://www.screenr.com/, although these last two do not let you to share your webcam, which Stephen likes.

Another tool Stephen likes is http://present.me, which shows a split screen with a video of yourself on one side of the screen and PowerPoint slides on the other.

For teachers with iPads, http://www.educreations.com/ is a nice tool. It can also be used on the Web too as it is cross-platform. Explain Everything is Stephen's favorite iPad app. It allows you to use images and move them around on screen in interesting ways and can also be used with students.

Despite these useful tools, it is not about the video, but actually the extra time using the videos frees up in the classroom. There seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence that this method does help with deeper learning in interesting ways, although not much research is available at the moment.

Just Hit pause

The second LTSIG day presentation by Suzanne Mordue and Sirin Soyoz was dedicated to video in the EFL classroom.

Sirin said she is interested in video because of the multiple channels that it allows and particularly emphasises the potential of Youtube, but because YouTube is not available in  some countries, Vimeo and Videojug are two alternative video sharing sites that have general videos.

Top documentary films, TED talks and National Geographic are some other channels for specialized videos at you can use with your students.

As far as ELT specific, Real English (http://real-english.com/)  Randall's video snapshots (http://www.esl-lab.com/videoclips.htm ), ESL Video, Simple English videos and LearnEnglish Teens are all sites with good sources of different videos. Sirin and Suzanne then shared lots of different clips and discussed how best to use them in the classroom.

Filtering relevant information through Content Curation

Carla Arena's presentation at IATEFL was all about digital curation. Carla started by looking at art curation, talking about the role of the curator as someone who gives meaning to content by selecting the best of a body of work and presenting it to the public. Libraries, churches and newspapers also all have lots of content and a curator to help them present content.

Asking the question, 'What has changed in content curation?' Graeme Hodgeson answered that it is now bottom-up, with people everywhere on the Web now curating content for others, and filtering information for different specialized audiences.

Carla mentioned 'Too big to know' by David Weinberger (http://www.toobigtoknow.com/about-2/) and the question 'what happens to knowledge and expertise now that we are faced with the fact that there is way way way more to know than can be known by any individual?' The hypothesis of the book is that 'knowledge and expertise are becoming networks, and are taking on the properties of networks' and digital curation, with networks of people finding and filtering through digital curation.

One of the first tools Carla introduced was Flicr galleries, which allow people to curate other people's photos. Another tool, http://cowbird.com allows for digital storytelling and Carla thinks that the most exciting thing about this tool is the idea of 'sprouting' a story, using your network and writing a story with students that include engaging, authentic  content.

One of the most popular digital curation tools is Pinterest (http://pinterest.com) and Carla uses this to collect photos that can then be used in class to stimulate discussion (e.g. showing a photo found using a keyword and then asking students to guess; or searching on a keyword and asking students to choose the photo that best represents, for example, a country - it can be, Carla believes a nice way to talk about stereotypes with learners.)

Mentor mob (http://mentor mob.com) allows a teacher to create learning playlists for students, so it can be a useful tool to use for homework or in class. Learn list (http://learn list.com) is a similar tool that allows for learning playlists to be created/curated. The same is true of http://theemefy.com, which enables you to create a magazine for you or your students that can be read online or downloaded. The book can be shared with others.

Another popular tool that many educators are using at the moment is http://scoop.it. An alternative to this is htpp://trap.it which allows the content to be pulled to you depending on a series of search terms that you decide on. You can do this with an iPad app or online. Flip Board is another app that can be used (in Mac iOS or Android). Zite is another app that Carla finds interesting. Finally, Carla shared a few links such as Edutecher that allows educators to find out the latest tools and information related tools.

Carla finished by recommending Robin Good as a must for anyone interested in educational curation tools (http://www.mindmeister.com/55395228/content-curation-tools-the-newsmaster-toolkit-by-robin-good-2012)

Implementing handheld learning - Victoria Boobyer

Victoria's session on handheld learning started by looking at the considerations that teachers and schools need to make when considering the use of handheld learning.

One of the first decisions that has to be made is which device. The audience was first asked to discuss the pros and cons of different options (class sets of tablets, bring your own device) and Victoria asked us to discuss the benefits and problems of implementing these decisions.

Obviously, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is cheaper, but not all students have the same devices, so the kinds of things you can do and which apps, etc you use will depend on this. Having a class set of tablets ensures everyone using a similar device, but then teachers need to consider things such as security, payment options (for apps, etc) and it can become an expensive option.

As far as security is concerned, with iPads, Victoria mentioned having to look at worries of device theft and breakage. Victoria's school's solution was to lock the ipads up when not is UNE and to use the app 'find my iPad'. Setting restrictions on what can be bought  or changing email accounts is important (eg nobody except Victoria can access the code to buy apps). Buying a durable cover for the tablet is important too, and in a year, the school has not lost a device and neither have they broken one. Apple will also etch the back of the iPad (for free) with the name of your school and number of iPad, etc.

Maintenance is around an hour a week, and then updates to apps take time too, but Victoria deals with this by taking turns to update each device. Maintenance also includes how/where/when they are charged and by whom. Which new apps to buy is also a consideration. When charging them, Joe Dale suggested using a plate rack to keep them separated and if they are all stored in the same place and charged together that will save time.

Ongoing teacher training is important. Victoria has found that top-down teacher training hasn't worked. Considerations involve finding out if teachers are tech comfortable, and if they aren't, then try to help them feel better about using the technology. Apple also trained all of Victoria's teachers for free. Other things to think of is how often training is done. Once a week for 20 minutes has proven to be popular, initially Victoria did the training and now the teachers are teaching each other how to use the apps, etc. Teachers could also take the iPads home to play with and this helped them feel better about using them.

Apart from the device, and more importantly,  responses from teachers show that the iPads are being used in ways that add to the learning, practice and recycling of language. The students also have given very good feedback about using the iPads in a variety  of ways to increase their use of English.

The next part of Victoria's presentation was looking at how the iPads are being used in class, and she started is by showing a video made with iMovie by the students of one class of a poem that they had written and then put to images.

Photo comic is an app which is popular with both teachers and students.

Questions included whether extra bandwidth is needed. Victoria said that this is true, and that the school have dedicated wifi for this and that if a teacher is planning on using, for example, a YouTube video, then it should be downloaded/loaded previously or (preferably) displayed on a screen (or IWB)

The Whys and Wherefores of OLPC

Nicolas Dantaz-Rico, a teacher in Uruguay, spoke about his research relating to teacher education and the laptops being introduced into the country for the Plan Ceibal. He started by talking about the positive effect the introduction of laptops into primary schools

He asked teachers if they were confident about using the laptops and how often they used the computers. He found the teachers he asked were not using the computers as much as was first thought.

One of the problems he found was that a lot of teachers feel overwhelmed, and what teachers really need to know rather than how to use the technology, is how the technology can be used to enhance learning.

Nicolas promotes the idea of partnering pedagogy, as suggested by Mark Prensky, as the way forward. He also thinks that the idea of the computer as a source of motivation is worrying and he thinks it needs to be what the teacher asks the learners to do that should be the source of the motivation rather than the actual machines themselves.

The role of the student was also examined by Nicolas, and he identified a number of roles, such as investigator, technology expert, content recipient, etc. the key to success, he feels is letting the kids find and follow their passion. He also believes more should be made of using whatever technology is available, not just the laptops and the kids should also be researching and finding information, sharing thoughts and opinions, creating presentations in text and multimedia. The teachers need to be good at creating and asking the right questions, giving students guidance, putting material in context, creating rigor, ensuring equality and explaining one-to-one.

Partnering pedagogy should be about student centred learning, problem and project based learning, case-based and inquiry-based and task-based learning. Nicolas believes that we are in an interesting moment to implement this and that the computer should just be one more tool that a teacher can use to help her teach the students.

Paul Woods - One Laptop Per Child

The most important lesson from the places where OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) has been implemented is that you cannot ignore training and teacher development. Paul Woods of the British Council spoke about it being vital if the project is to be successful, although there are experiments by people such as Sugata Mitre (Hole in the wall project) that claim to have success by just giving kids access to the technology.

It's also what you do with the device that makes all the difference. Nicholas Negroponte has also said that OLPC is all about empowering children through education. There are 1/2 million XO laptops in Uruguay and many other laptops all over the world including in Nepal, Afghanistan, India, Rwanda, Madagascar and Argentina, Venezuela and Peru.

Research has been done during these projects, with results reporting greater learner satisfaction, and highly engaged learning taking place. Criticisms in Argentina have been: lack of connectivity and problems over maintenance when Ines go wrong.

Paul Woods then talked about the Plan Ceibal project in Uruguay, where he is involved as Programme manager of the English teaching, and he showed  a video about the project,which is proving to be very successful.

A humorous moment occurred when an interview with Paul appeared in the video and he seemed to be wearing the same shirt!

In Uruguay, Paul has found that the British Council have been writing materials to use on the laptops and for the remote teaching. Every 9 weeks the students are doing tests, and the results of these have been very positive.

The project the British Council is expanding quickly and results of the pilot have shown that many of the kids have taught their parents how to use the laptops.

Paul finished by showing a fabulously cute video taken by a teacher, of two kids demonstrating the English that they had learnt.

Questions from the audience included questions about software (Linux), and whether money would have been better spent on teacher training in the country - there was a concern, and the British Council have told the Uruguayan government that they should be doing this too.

One to one learning with handheld devices - Michael Carrier

In this session, Michael Carrier spoke about the benefits of adopting a Programme of 1:1 handheld devices in the classroom, starting by talking about the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) programme.

Michael quoted Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of OLPC: "What children lack is not capability, it is opportunity and resources"

Michael spoke about the places where these 1:1 learning is being put into place, and where it is showing success. He also spoke about places where the programmes have not been so successful. The reason why many of these projects fail is well known, according to Michael. It is usually due to not investing in teacher training and teacher development, which means the teachers do not feel involved or comfortable using the devices in the classroom.

In many places where 1:1 programmes have been successfully implemented have seen some very positive responses from children, teachers and parents. Uruguay and the Plan Ceibal is the world leader at the moment, and Michael spoke about the work the British Council is doing in Uruguay using teleconferencing to help the children learn English  because the country does not have enough trained English teachers in primary schools.

In order to make is work, Michael believes that new teacher competencies need to be developed, including e-moderation courses and he said policy development is also very important. The budget and setting aside money to invest in teacher development is so important in determining the success of these projects, and Michael called for more teacher training courses to be developed to help teachers develop the skills they need to be able to teach in these new contexts.

To finish, Michael looked at what's happening next, including new models of publishing.

Questions and comments from the audience included a man who asked how you can use this type of learning in a very large class, and how it can be evaluated. Michael responded that more research needs to be done and teachers need to try out different models to allow for this, conducting action research. One way of dealing with large classes, for example, is to get the children working in groups.

Another important feature of many of these programmes involve using a Learning Management System to support the learning taking place. Michael also believes that there will be new careers opening up for teachers with so much online learning and teaching taking place.

Michael's presentation can be downloaded from http://www.michaelcarrier.com