It wasn’t long ago that I heard about an idea and had one of those “Well duh...” moments. It was the flipped classroom. It is a fairly simply concept, but it could change the way schools teach. It basically goes like this:

We all know what to expect from school right? We show up and listen to the teacher, watch the board and take notes so we can remember what was covered. Then we go home and are expected to do our homework which reinforces the lecture and ensures we “get” the topic. The problem is that when you’re home, there is no one there to help you if you don’t “get” the topic. The flipped classroom flips that model on its head.

The lecture, notes, etc are done at home. The student can watch a video, view a slide deck and absorb the information that would otherwise have been presented during the class period. Then go to school the next day and do the “home work”, but have the teacher there as a resource to reinforce the lesson. The teacher can do a better job of making sure the students “get” it.

Lessons at home, work at school. A simple concept that just makes sense. I know from my experience: I often got home after school, pulled out my math assignment, looked down and couldn’t figure out what I was looking at. With no one there to bridge the gap between the lecture in class, and the practical application, it simply wasn’t possible for me to “get” it. I know for a fact that if I was sitting at home watching the lecture, and I pulled out my assignment when I got to class, I would have had a much better chance of completing the assignment and ultimately understanding the concept. But that is enough about my academic struggles, let’s take a look at how this is now possible.

Technology has progressed to a point where flipping the classroom is not only possible, but can be done effectively and at a reasonable cost. You have to address three critical components to flip a classroom.

Content

Content is key in the flipped classroom. Fortunately, much of the content already exists and just needs to be flipped. Here’s how to flip it.

It may be a bit old fashioned, but personally I like to see the person presenting my information so I prefer video lectures. But, there is a lot of content to present in addition to the lecture itself and this can be presented in the same video. My tip would be: don’t record your lecture in front of a whiteboard presenting as you would to a class. Take a look at how the folks over at educator.com have a multi-columned approach it is much more effective see here.

If you are thinking about what a challenge it would be to create all this content, consider this: work with your A/V students and have them take part in the creation and editing of videos for credit. This would be a great hands-on experience for the students that serves the dual-purpose of helping get content online faster.

Delivery platform

The delivery platform is critical in the flipped classroom. Students will be using a wide variety of devices to access the content. So you must consider the following factors:

• Content types
• Bandwidth and load
• Devices

There are a huge variety of content types: video, presentations, documents, applications, audio, etc. Determining which content types to use can seem daunting and you have to ask questions like: “If I use PowerPoint are all my students able to open it?”. If you have to ask the question, the answer is probably no, so don’t do it. Do not use any formats that are not universally accessible. Videos should be hosted on a server capable of HTML5 delivery AND Flash delivery. Proprietary document formats should not be used. When in doubt don’t put it in a document, put it directly on a webpage. It is much easier for mobile devices if they can access it in their browser and don’t need to download.

Bandwidth is a factor on both the back-end (servers) and front-end (student devices) so you should be aware of it. Just because you can shoot and post your video in 1080p doesn’t mean your network, or your students network, has the bandwidth to handle it. Use a lower resolution and keep the images displayed still on the screen as much as possible and you will have a dramatically smaller file. Big files are great for keeping important memories, but when you are trying to distribute information to a large number of people big files will stop things dead in their tracks.

We touched on devices when looking into content types, but there is another major factor in devices and that is screen size. Your student may be using their 50” TV or their 3.5” iPod. Make sure that what you are presenting looks good on screens whether big or small. All devices have different capabilities, so be aware of the different types of devices when creating your content.

Presentation Platform

The presentation of the information can take many different forms, but I feel like students expect everything to be in one place. It is “Facebookization”. It needs to be easy to use for teachers and students and it needs to enhance the flipped classroom experience. I believe a social, collaborative site will have the best chance for success. Equate social media names that students are already familiar with to the education environment: classes=groups, lessons=posts, projects=activities, etc. Make the transition between popular social platforms and your education platform seamless for the student.

I am always interested in hearing from people on new ideas. If you are doing this today, want to do it or just have ideas I would like to hear from you. Twitter works best.