Two EdTech innovators that I respect, Rabbi Dov Emerson and Rabbi Michael Green, recently pointed me to the amazing TED video by Salman Khan, the visionary who created the Khan Academy as an online repository of over 2100 video tutorials on a wide range of subjects in mathematics and science. In the video, Mr. Khan describes his dream of using his videos to "flip the classroom" where instead of learning about a new topic first from a teacher using a frontal lecturing style, students can watch the videos at home. Class time could then be devoted to what would normally be "homework assignments" with students performing exercises based on the new skill while the teacher is available to assist students who need extra help or provide enrichment in the form of real-world demonstrations.
This idea of the "Flipped Classroom" actually has been around a while. You can watch a video describing a flipped science classroom below:
In the theme of the "flipped classroom", I will now "flip" this blog. Instead of my sharing with you what I think about this idea, which you as always are free to agree or disagree with, I will withhold judgement at this point. I first invite you to share your thoughts either as comments on this posting or by contacting me via Twitter, Facebook, email or any other way you would like. I will post a follow-up in the future summarizing your thoughts (if you have any) and sharing some of my own (which might have changed by that point). I welcome your feedback.
The chiddush is doing this at a level below college. In college, every classroom is flipped - you do the reading and then the purpose of class is to expand on that. Granted, there are often still lectures, but the better professors (in non-survey courses) use class time to foster discussion, experimentation, whatever.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the key to this is to make sure that the work that goes home is on a level that most students can understand it on their own. Also, parents need to be convinced that the kids are not being asked to teach themselves or, even worse, that the parents are not being asked to teach their kids when there are teachers whose job it is to do so.
I am not sure why this is considered such a new idea. The thought that students should be able to do their primary learning off a computer at their own pace and then have the teacher be the "guide from the side" has been around for a while. Whether the computer is at home or used in school for part of a period doesn't really seem to matter all that much.
ReplyDeleteAs Rabbi Ross points out, things need to be attuned to grade level and their are very little resources for Judaic Studies out there to date. This year, I have been working towards this goal in my Navi class by putting a lot of text and audio files online so that hopefully by next year students can begin to explore on their own first. However, it is a long process and requires a lot of work. I think we need a central organization willing to sponsor the development of digital curricular materials for all Judaic Studies students. If you don't experiment, you will never know.
Tzvi Daum
http://torahskills.org
The speech was eye opening. Totally fascinating!!I think that this works in some subjects, but at an elementary school Limudei Kodesh level there needs to be a Rebbi teaching. You lose some of the geshmak of the learning doing it this way. At high school, yeshiva or college levels this would be the way to learn. The students prepare the gemara before the Rebbi says Shiur. But it can't be that the Sefer Torah is opened in a keren z'viyis and whoever wants can come and learn. Perhaps on the more minor subjects such as Novi, or Yediot Klaliot it would work. But for Gemara and Chumash it needs to be active with a Rebbi. For sure inside the class it can be done with guided discovery and practice. It doesn't need to be in a shiur style. Just the intangible of having a live breathing neshama standing in front of the boys can't be discounted. I teach 6th and 3rd grades so this is the viewpoint that I am coming from.
ReplyDeleteMy kids are all using Khan Academy on line, learning a great deal, and loving it. As this has developed we of course talked about how wonderful it would be to have such a thing developed for the Jewish world. I think this is VERY exciting. There are many very basic things that elementary students could learn that aren't gemara and would work great this way. I look forward to sharing the lessons you have already made, and seeing if my kids can do the hw assignments from them. I would love to see mastery of peshat this way. Mastery few students get before jumping into gemara, which is its own problem. Keep going and keep us posted!!!
ReplyDeleteHow does the flipped classroom respond to the individual or special needs of students who do not understand the content conveyed in the video?
ReplyDeleteRichard D Solomon, Phd