The Not-Quite-Flapped Classroom Part 2

Perhaps you have already read about my first steps with The Not-Quite-Flipped Classroom and are wondering about my progress. I have continued my exploration of a hybrid classroom with mixed results.

Classroom Atmosphere

When my students know in advance that we are using personal iPads and video tutorials in class, they arrive and get right to work. Most students work alone, but others choose to share an iPad and are quick to borrow my headphone splitter. I allow students to pick their own partners for the most part.  Sometimes I step in and redirect students to more productive partnerships. Class begins quickly and efficiently.

Work Ethics

Students are able to concentrate without distractions on the video tutorials that I have created using educreations. They can really focus because they have blocked out external distractions by using earbuds or headphones.  Each student is able to get into the written work that is both the class assignment and the homework. This allows students to have less written work to do at home.

The Not-Quite-Flipped Classroom

I have read so much information about flipping classrooms. I can see both the benefits and the disadvantages. As I am not quite ready to experiment with this technique until I know my students will find success with it, I decided to try a Not-Quite-Flipped lesson.

I'd Like You to Meet My Class

 The group that I used for this experiment was my grade 8 Pre-Algebra students. There are fifteen students in my class, seven boys and eight girls, and one student with a specified learning disability (SLD). I teach in a private middle school, grades six through eight, with a total of 77 students. We are in our first year of a 1:1 iPad program with iPads that the school purchased, and students are assigned one iPad for the year to use in school and take home each day.

The Backend

Prior to class, I had a bit of work to do. On my iPad, I used the educreations app to sign up for an account with http://www.educreations.com/. Then I created a video tutorial with the app for the lesson topic. A few things to note: Create all the backgrounds for the slides first, then go back and record your voice while you write, and once you have recorded your voice, there is no edit feature. Next I went to the educreations website on my computer and created a class and added the tutorial I had just created. Finally, I sent an email to my students with a link to the class in educreations.