"Double Flip for Your Students"

Teachers who are looking to "sharpen their saws", "move their cheese", or "evolve their pedagogy", should consider flipping their learning, not once, but twice. Double flip the instruction to advance student learning in significant ways.

**What do you mean by double-flipping the learning?**

Notice that I did not mention classroom - the concept of classroom is fast becoming a restrictive and obsolete container for students and teachers. "The world is our connected learning playground."

First flip (Flipped Learning / @jonbergmann ) your learning by providing students the means to absorb curricular content digitally, or via the web. Material and information that would have traditionally been presented during class time is now "shared" digitally. Face-to-face time is now spent doing the "work" associated with the course. "Classwork at home, homework in class." Ask yourself, "why am I giving homework?" Short, animated video from Flipped Classroom.org
Second flip (Connectivism as Learning Theory / George Siemens & Stephen Downes) your learning by reversing the roles of teachers and learners. Students become the owners / directors of the learning by investigating and researching topics, mastering concepts and skills, solving problems (PBL), or completing projects - and then communicating, presenting, or "teaching", what they have learned to the class, or wider audience. Teachers learn all they can about their students' interests, abilities, and aptitudes so that they can assist in the formation learning goals, challenge students, and help them to become individually responsible for their connected learning.

**Why should I consider doing a double-flip?**

Maximize class time with guided practice, differentiated instruction, provide spontaneous feedback to formative assessments, student-to-student problem solving or group projects.
Students can access and review digitized content as needed, students can create and grow their personal learning network and connect with experts in areas of interest.
Students can enhance skills and develop areas of mastery that can be shared locally or globally. The "audience" of learners helps boost accountability, pride, and performance.
Teachers model connectivist learning practices and assist students in becoming responsible for their own learning. More meaningful connections are established - teacher to student, as well as, student to student. Teachers get to work smarter, not harder. Students will work harder knowing that they are supported while doing more meaningful, personalized learning.

**How should I begin preparing for double-flipped learning?**

Keep revisiting the question, "why do I want to do this?"
Review ISTE Standards for Teachers and ISTE Standards for Students - these can help guide your practice and assess your progress.
With respects to digitized resources, do you want to curate, create, or both?
Gather and practice using the technology tools that will support connected learning.
Leverage your PLN for resources and guidance in shifting the learning pedagogy.
Identify the key skills and objectives that you want your students to master through connected learning.
Review the existing learning materials and get rid of the obsolete, paper-based items that will inhibit your pedagogy shift. Digitize and update the materials that are worth keeping.
Take time to reflect. Share the setbacks and successes with professional learning teams (PLTs) and your personal learning network (PLN).

Double flipping has the exciting potential of allowing students to take ownership of their education while developing investigative, collaborative skills that can be the foundation for a life time of connected learning. Meanwhile, teachers guide activities and practices that help expose and expand the world's collective knowledge base.

Additional Resources

Flipping the Classroom Means Flipping the Relationship - Jimmy Leach

The Educator's PLN

Simple Guide to Four Complex Learning Theories

+Edudemic

Five Best Practices for Flipping the Classroom

@betamiller

The Flipped Classroom, It's Got to be Done Right

+Mark Frydenberg

Best Posts about Flipping the Classroom

+Larry Ferlazzo

What is Connected Learning?

photo credit: Jose Luis Garza via photopin cc

What Teachers Can Learn From Effective Coaches

In my educational world teaching and coaching involve the same processes. The people that impacted my own learning most significantly were coaches. Could it be that great coaches were ahead of their time with respects to instructional best practices? Let's take a look at ten coaching practices that thankfully have found their way into the classroom. http://www.coachwooden.com/files/PyramidThinkingSuccess.jpg Standards-based Grading - coaches aren't concerned with arbitrary measures of success such as letter grades. Great coaches identify a requisite set of skills that are necessary for advancement and success. Promotion and achievement are based upon clearly identified levels of skill mastery. Authentic assessment - coaches are looking for their athletes to demonstrate their skill mastery under game-like situations. The best coaches incorporate game simulations and competitive, game-like drills into their practices. Winning coaches will use the contests as assess

Board Games in the School Library: 3 Reasons Why It's a Winning Play

"Play is the highest form of research." - Albert Einstein “Play is the work of the child.” – Maria Montessori In our recently remodeled school media center, we have a space dedicated to active engagement in fun learning activities. Part maker space, part literacy lounge, board games are being incorporated to promote a culture of joyful learning. Whether it's a game of Rummy , Yahtzee , or Scrabble , family game night serves as a communication elixir and solidifies our domestic climate of togetherness. Shouldn't similar opportunities for interaction, challenge, and fun exist somewhere in our schools? Broken families, cultural fragmentation, and poverty are impacting opportunities for children to play. As we unpacked and tagged our new media center games, I was more disappointed than shocked by the number of students who had never played Monopoly , Boggle , or Sorry . One skeptical teacher commented, "Oh great, now we're letting students pl

Self-Directed vs. Self-Determined Learning; What's the Difference?

"We need to move beyond the idea that an education is something that is provided for us, and toward the idea that an education is something that we create for ourselves." - Stephen Downes In this age of abundance of information, shifting classroom pedagogy isn't nearly enough to make learning in school more relevant and authentic for the learner. Self-directed learning ( andragogy ), and self-determined learning ( heutagogy ) are the ideals necessary in making students " future ready " to live and learn in a web-connected world. While original research applied these concepts to mature learners, it has become apparent that even young children have an abundant capacity for recognizing and directing their learning. Anyone who has observed toddlers learning how to walk and talk understand the motivation and skill development that quickly develops during these processes. Considered by some to be on a learning continuum, self-directed learning, and self-determined

Nocking the Arrow

Search This Blog