Happy New Year - and a look back

Well, it is that time for reflection once again.  Reflection and looking forward at the same time.  What did I do well or not so well in 2012, and what will I do better with in 2013? 

In the last few months, I continued to push in to the realm of flipped classroom teaching.  I created videos on 13 of the topics covered in my Digital Electronics class this fall.  I may never win an academy award, but the results have been fairly positive.  It did in many cases, as I had hoped, give students more time to work on their projects in class with direction and help available.  I say in many cases because it has taken some time to get everyone in the habit of checking for or watching a video for homework.  Even if they didn't, though, those students sit in class and review the videos with their assignment in front of them.  If I thought it was strange to be teaching a lesson in an empty room to nobody, it is even more so to hear my voice coming from 2-3 different computers in the room while I am there! 

Feedback from the students has been positive.  Many said that they benefited from the ability to watch the lesson, pause and rewind when necessary, and work on the assignment right away.  It hasn't been perfect, but the results were good enough to encourage me to expand my efforts. I added a short review video for the Intro to Engineering class and plan to create a review for them as we come back to school after the Christmas break.  Even if they don't watch it before class, they can take advantage of the ability to watch and do simultaneously. 

Along the way, I have gotten some better at using a few of the tools that helped out.  Those 13 videos are all posted on Youtube, which I had done little more than watch videos previously.  I recorded the lessons mostly using my school document camera and screencastomatic.com with editing using Microsoft's Movie Maker.  All of those are free, but screencastomatic has a premium version that is cheap ($29 for 3 years) that claims to allow editing and direct upload to Youtube.  I look forward to trying that out in 2013. 

In November, I attended a class on flipping the classroom that was very helpful.  I already knew much of what was presented, but there were still some good tips and ideas that I had not yet explored.  Primarily, we used iPad tablets to create a short sample lesson video.  That will work well with my new Christmas present (Galaxy tab 2 10.1" version for the sight-impaired).  I can certainly look forward to using that in the future. 

In short, it has been an exciting year of change in my classroom.  As I had hoped, I look forward to expanding those changes in to new areas and incorporating even more new tools & ideas.  That, I think is the essence of teaching.  As teachers, we should demonstrate for our students that the way it has always been done is not the only or even the best way.  Exploring options; trying new things; learning new ways.  Those are what get me up in the morning excited about going to work. 

I Have a Dream

Six years ago, I had a dream.  When the new math text books were adopted, a wealth of videos and online resources became available to help students learn the subject and to help teachers help students.  For our books, a full copy of the text was available online.  Now anyone with an internet connection could do their math homework.  Not only that, but the author of the book himself made videos available where he taught each and every lesson in the book.  I requested a speakerphone for my room so that I could call in at the start of class; instruct a trustworthy student to press "Play" on the computer; and let Dr. Berger teach the class.  I could spend my whole workday lying on the couch eating popcorn! 

Well, I still have to get dressed and go in to school each day, but I am taking advantage of some of the concepts from that dream.  My Digital Electronics class involves a LOT of problem solving and trouble-shooting.  You just can't tell how long an assignment will take because you can't predict how many gremlins will reside in a circuit which a 16 year old constructs.  To be successful, my students need as much time practicing what I preached as I can get them.  This class is perfect for flipping.

 Flipping the class means that you switch the traditional learning environment.  In a normal classroom, the teacher delivers the material in the classroom.  With whatever time is left over, students work on their problems ("homework") and then finish at home.  However, parents are often incapable of helping with that homework.  This leaves students helpless and frustrated as they are unable to get answers to questions they have.  In the time between learning the subject and sitting down to practice it, so much more has happened and crowded out that knowledge that they thought came so easy a few hours earlier.  What could be worse is that a student could think he/she is doing great, only to discover much later that they did everything wrong.  Now, they have to unlearn all of the mistakes before they can pick up on the correct ideas.

To flip a classroom, students learn the theory outside of class so that more of class time can be spent practicing under the guidance of a knowledgeable teacher.  Presumably, that is me.  On four different lessons now, I created a video to explain what the students need to know in order to complete the next assignment.  When they get to class, they can start right away (or at least, more quickly) in to practicing what they have learned.  I am available for when they get stuck, and I can monitor their work so that they don't repeat mistakes over and over again. 

At first, it was odd: standing in the front of an empty classroom to deliver a lesson to -- nobody.  The thought that someone would come by and ask if I needed to go see the nurse - or a psychiatrist - did cross my mind, so I was a bit subdued in the first ones.  After a few, though, I think I am getting more comfortable with it.  My voice is becoming more relaxed, and I am becoming more of the "me" that my students would see live in the classroom.  Response from students has been generally positive as well.  One even thanked me today for making the video so that he could do the work even though I was absent from class today.  (No. I was not at home on the couch, and I did not still have on my bathrobe!) 

I've always said that my goal was to get my students to the point that they didn't need me anymore.  If the only thing they ever know is what I - or some other teacher - teaches them, the world is in big trouble.  I want students to create their own knowledge and even challenge mine from time to time.  This concept helps with that.  Even without me there, they are capable of picking up a new and challenging topic.  I may never win an Academy Award or become the next YouTube sensation, but I am enjoying doing this and like the results, so far.  I'll keep you updated as to how it goes. 

The Modern World

Apparently, this doesn't apply to me since I haven't updated the blog since August, but I am getting better.  I have spent time in the last year thinking about how different the world is today than ... five years ago.

It is estimated that half of the US households will own at least one smartphone sometime this year (if we are not already there).  It is not uncommon to meet people who no longer (or never did) own a land-line based phone.  My use of our own home phone is becoming more limited each day.  Just a year or so ago, I protected my cell phone number like it was a national security secret, but I have given it out more and more frequently recently to businesses and others.  Ninety percent of my phone calls to and from friends and family these days is made through my cell phone - enough so to make me question if a home phone is at all worth the monthly charge any more. 

It still aggravates me to see a family of four at a restaurant with every member - kids and parents included - texting, gaming, or surfing the web on their cell phone while waiting on their meal (and maybe even after the meal arrives).  The number of text messages my son sends out is easily 100 times the minutes he uses on his cell phone month after month.  It is obvious (or so it appears) that people today (not just "kids" as some of us would like to think) prefer to communicate via text message versus face-to-face. 

In a recent survey of 1000+ thirteen to seventeen year olds, for Common Sense Media, reported some surprising (at least to me) results.  I say surprising because some of the findings are reported that the students surveyed would prefer face-to-face communicate or feel that it takes away from their personal relationships.  While the percentage reported is significant, 49% is not a majority.  I take comfort in knowing that a sizable group of our future recognize there are some drawbacks to communication via a non-personal albeit convenient method even as I slip more and more in to the trap of this convenience. 

The current trend is poised to usher in some significant changes in how we approach teaching.  More and more, we are adapting new technology in the classroom setting.  While technology can offer up the same conveniences in the classroom that they offer at home - and any where else we go, as educators we need to make sure that we include teaching how to use technology responsibly and productively.

For the past 4 years of teaching, I have been committed to introducing more and more technology in my classroom, and I have done fairly well.  It started with using the Smart Board instead of a blackboard (literally, it was a blackboard) and ended with an almost exclusive use of an online classroom site to communicate with students last year.  This year, my commitment is to use MOODLE for more interactive communication with my students and seek to find a use for Twitter.  I am grateful that I teach in a school with a pretty good concentration of tech savvy faculty.  I am hopeful that we can bring more of our colleagues along.