[LINK] Flipping the classroom: using technology to change the way lessons are delivered.

[David Boxall]

From: 
<http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/technology-brings-the-classroom-back-home-in-role-reversal-20111106-1n1xv.html>.
There's also video at 
<http://media.smh.com.au/system/ipad/flipping-the-classroom-2746308.html>, 
which unfortunately fails on my high-latency connection.

Technology brings the classroom back home in role reversal
Andrew Stevenson
November 7, 2011
IT'S no longer a question of potential; forces set free by technology 
are beginning to turn the traditional classroom on its head.

Emerging under the broad label of ''flipping'' the classroom are a 
profusion of new learning models that go beyond turning on the laptops 
and smartboards that are now commonplace in schools.

Technology offers the opportunity to break up the traditional lesson 
structure and to shift learning opportunities in both space and time. In 
a pure flip, a lesson might be ''taught'' online at home; class time 
becomes a place for a student to do their ''homework'' - to practice 
what they have learnt.
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''Good teaching is still good teaching; it's always there,'' said Lila 
Mularczyk, the principal of Merrylands High.

''But the technology is allowing the scope and breadth of it to really 
open up. And the avenues of delivery are now at home, they're on the bus 
and they're in the playground, where students can be preparing for 
lessons or following up on them.''

But it is also shaking up how a teacher might spend his day.

Andrew Jeppesen, a language teacher at Knox Grammar School, in 
Wahroonga, is leading a program across three languages for year 7 
students using game-based software.

''The teacher is acting more as a facilitator, walking around, making 
sure they know where the students are up to and the students are in fact 
helping each other out and collaborating,'' Mr Jeppesen said.

''When I was taught languages you would come in, sit down, write what 
was on the blackboard and do some exercises in a book. It's come a long 
way since then.''

At Kambala, an Anglican girls school in Rose Bay, students in the 
international baccalaureate program are using technology to take a much 
more active role in shaping their own learning. When they are studying 
at home they use a number of social networking platforms to co-operate, 
test each other's knowledge and provide an opportunity for instant peer 
support.

Students lead classes and are required to give presentations to their 
peers. They also get through chunks of subject matter at home, online.

''We sort of invert what we do at home and what we do at school,'' said 
a Kambala student, Alice Donaldson, 17. ''Any questions we have from 
things we've been asked to look at the night before we can ask in class.''

''It means the teachers have more time to answer directly our questions 
rather than [waiting and] marking our tests or homework and seeing what 
we haven't understood.''

Helen Carmody, the head of teaching and learning at Kambala, said 
flipping opened the door to more flexibility in how school and home 
study time were used. It allowed her year 7 English class to continue 
discussions at home with students giving each other feedback.

''I see two distinct advantages. The first is that it is really 
re-orienting our approach to learning,'' she said. ''The corollary of 
that is that it moves much more into the space of young people these days.''

-- 
David Boxall                    |  When a distinguished but elderly
                                |  scientist states that something is
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  possible, he is almost certainly
                                |  right. When he states that
                                |  something is impossible, he is
                                |  very probably wrong.
                                                  --Arthur C. Clarke