I have found in my flipping experience that my lectures must be authentic. I originally looked through a ton of the materials available from Khan Academy, however none of these videos satisfied what my goals were for my lesson, and for several reasons. First, Kansas history is not common, therefore not readily available in Khan Academy. Originally designed to help in higher mathematics and sciences, there isn’t a focus on Kansas that was meaningful. Second, I found creating my own lectures was far more effective to my student’s learning, since I used common terminology and references from my class, current events, and book which aren’t available from anyone else but me. Khan has it’s place, but I haven’t found it’s place in my classroom.
I have used short documentary-styled videos in replacement of my lecture, usually using a set of questions to go along with the video as prompts for thinking and synthesis. Once these questions are answered, students bring these to class (or the notes I had them take, either way) and we perform a task. Again, specific Kansas related videos are difficult to find, however YouTube.com has some short clips pertaining to my specific subject matter which have been helpful.
SchoolTube.com and TeacherTube.com are two other sources where I can find information and very specific subjects, such as Bleeding Kansas, John Brown, and the Dust Bowl. By using these sources any teacher knows they have safe, educationally appropriate content, however the sites aren’t as popular yet with other platforms. For instance, many of my flips use the website TedEd.com (CLICK for my lesson), a break-off of the very popular TedTalks.com lecture series website. Using TedEd, teachers can embed YouTube videos directly into the site and have corresponding questions with the video. This site is specific to YouTube currently, and will not allow access to either TeacherTube or SchoolTube (I’ve tried both). However, the school specific nature of both of these sites is a plus for the classroom.
I am a beginner when it comes to the flipped classroom. A Kindergarten teacher in my school began flipping her class last year to preteach sight words and found it very successful. I am getting excited to give it a try with my math work stations and new math concepts in my first grade classroom. I agree with your statement of the importance of creating the videos yourself to be more authentic for your students. I wen through this exact thought process and concluded my students would have more buy in and interest if they are seeing my face or hearing my voice. I am wanted to get started on flipping within the next week or two. I need to create a quick survey of technology available at home to see what I am working with.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned begging technology from other areas of the school. Are you keeping this technology in your room to assist in students viewing your videos due to not having access at home? I have four student computers and two iPads in my room for students who may not have access at home and about 20 minutes each morning they can use to view them. I think I am better off than some who make it a successful change.
Any useful tips you can send my way would be greatly appreciated.
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain when it comes to finding readily available content. The majority of flipped lessons available have been created for older students, so finding appropriate content for my kindergarten students has been a challenge. I decided to experiment with flipping lessons to teach letters and sounds, and have had some good luck with content from Sesame Street's You Tube channel. I commend you for taking the time to create your own lecture videos to benefit your students. Will you be able to re use these from year to year?
I agree with what you say about Khan Academy and that is coming from a high school math teacher. The videos are great but finding those that follow the exact objective of the lesson I intend to teach can prove a bit daunting. As I am sure you are aware, research has proven how the students react better to videos created by a voice they can connect with which would be their teacher. I have found some great videos for math at http://www.sophia.org/ but not sure if there would be any related to Kansas History. When I tried SchoolTube, I found the bandwidth was far less superior when compared to YouTube. That is why I decided to go with the Livescribe Smartpen when I did the flipped classroom for my action research project. It also ensured my students without internet access at their home would still be able to view the pencasts I created as long as they saved the email attachment to their computer before leaving class.
ReplyDeleteI am impressed with what you have been able to accomplish in the little time that you have been flipping. You seem to be the guru in our co-hort so be prepared to answer some questions next week. I found a podcast that was discussing ways to make vod/podcasting easier and they suggested using youtube.com/editing You can put any pieces of video found in YouTube together, you probably already knew about it though. I am going to share some of your ideas with the social studies teacher in my building and hope that she finds it as interesting as I do. I am inspired by what you have posted and hope to be able to create a learning environment like yours. Thanks
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as though you have a good grasp of flipping and have worked hard to get your material covered. I was wondering if you would be able to find material centralized around Kansas as a theme. I know there are a ton of materials out there, but was unsure if I could find much dealing with the exact vocabulary that I use at my school during my lessons. Thanks for the insight. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDelete