Flipped Classroom Tools

Purpose: Recording lectures for flipped classroom instruction

Review of Practice: Recently there has been a push in the educational community towards the practice flipping classrooms.  A flipped classroom represents one in which the students engage with notes, reading, and/or lectures at home in the form of homework as a preview of the content material.  This then opens classtime to the completion of activities, assignments, and projects that are geared to give the student more experience in actually demonstrating their knowledge with the particular content.  This can generate both positives and negatives in practice.  On the positive side, teachers are able to provide students more direct feedback because students are working with the material during their time in class as opposed to reading or listening/recording notes.  Also on the positive side, the resources teachers posted for students to preview the material at home, such as prerecorded notes, videos, readings, etc, can be stored for a student to access as many times as they need.  This in contrast to a student that misses a class lecture or struggles to pay attention one day and has no method to experience the content a second time.  On the negative side, flipped classroom takes some time and resources to implement, as well as a change in the organizational thinking of the learning process for both the student and the teacher.

Impact: To make the transition to the flipped classroom, there are several resources I have been working with recently aimed at making the process more efficient and effective.  One of the most effective ways to engage in flipping your classroom is to model the Khan Academy approach.  Teachers recording interactive notes as they talk through and explain the content.  This not only introduces the student to the content material, it models notetaking as a skill.  Teachers will need to consider three items in trying this approach for themselves.  The first is acquiring a tablet to be able to efficiently record notes.  Huion makes several quality items at reasonable to cheap prices most of which can be acquired on Amazon with prime two-day shipping.  The tablet and pen will allow teachers to write just the same as on a whiteboard or chalkboard in their classroom.  Next teachers will need to consider software.  Next you will need to consider the software you prefer for how that recorded text will look.  For those recording on a Mac I would highly recommend an application called Sketchbook.  There is a free trial to determine if you like the app and then a monthly subscription fee after that point.  For those on PC, I have had good success with a program called SmoothDraw which offers both free and premium features.  There are likely many options out there for both platforms, you would be encouraged to explore until you find those that work the best for you and your content/classroom needs.  Last, you will need to consider recording software.  I have had good results with the free version of Screencast-o-matic.  This allows you to draw a box over what you would like to record.  If you place the box over your tablet recording software window, it will capture what you write and say in live time as it appears on the screen.  There is also a paid version of Screencast-o-matic that will allow you to record longer videos and upload in additional formats to additional websites.    If your goal is to give your students a new format to engaging with content, and as a result open up more of your class time to activities and projects, give this a try.  You might be starting the next Khan Academy.

Program Link: HUION Tablets
Program Link: Sketchbook Tablet Recording Software
Program Link: Screencast-O-Matic Video/Audio Recording Software