Flip Tips

Peggy Bacon in mid-air backflip, Bondi Beach, Sydney, 6/2/1937 / by Ted Hood Format: Film photonegative (copied from original nitrate photonegative) From State Library of New South Wales via The Commons on Flickr

Flipping the classroom is getting a lot of attention lately. If you’re anything like me, learning about concepts is interesting but actually figuring out how to implement a new technique is what really draws my interest. I’m banking on the fact that I’m not alone on this so let’s dig in.

Robert Talbert is a mathematician and educator who writes for Casting Out Nines in the Chronicle. Over the last few months he has been writing a series of posts about a calculus class that he flipped for the Fall 2013 semester. In his article “Getting Off On The Right Foot in an Inverted Calculus Class” he offers instructions for how to integrate the out-of-class component with class time. These tips pair pedagogy with action to help practioners figure out how to activate prior knowledge, employ formative assessment techniques and integrate time management methods into their usage of the flipped classroom. (Robert expands on the necessity of certain student skills here. It’s an eye opening read.)

I want to flip! Who can help me?

We’d love to talk to you about your goals and ideas! Contact Heather (hstafford@middlebury.edu) or Joe (jantonio@middlebury.edu) so we can get started! There are also several faculty on campus who are already actively working on this in their classrooms. If you are a faculty member who is working on the flip and interested in developing a community of practice with others who want to do the same, please let us know!

 

Using Videos to Explain Problem Examples

This article may be helpful to faculty members in the areas of mathematics and science who are considering utilizing video podcasts as support materials to help students work through problem sets for their class. Please note that although the journal article mentioned below is free to access, you will need to establish a username and password on the journal site to do so.

In the article “Developing a Framework for Creating Effective Instructional Video Podcasts” R. H. Kay studied the development and use of videos to share “worked examples” online with students. Worked examples are “instructional devices that provide an expert’s problem solution for a learner to study” (Atkinson, Derry, Renkl, & Wortham, 2014, p. 181).  Kay then used these findings to develop a framework organized into four main categories:

  • Establishing Context
  • Creating Effective Explanations
  • Minimizing Cognitive Load
  • Engaging Students

as well as 16 subcategories which can be viewed via the article link above. Please see page 24.

I want to do this! Who can help?

Contact Heather (hstafford@middlebury.edu) or Joe (jantonio@middlebury.edu) to get started!

Sources:

Atkinson, R. K., Derry, S. J., Renkl, A., & Wortham, D. (2000). Learning from Examples: Instructional Principles from the Worked Examples Research. Review of Educational Research, 70(2), 181–214. doi:10.3102/00346543070002181

Kay, R. H. (2014). Developing a Framework for Creating Effective Instructional Video Podcasts. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 9(1), pp. 22–30.

 

Annotating Texts to Deepen Meaning

CV Starr Professor of Russian & East European Studies Tom Beyer is no stranger to utilizing technology in the classroom. During the summer of 2013 Tom approached the digital media tutor program to see if we could assist with transitioning content from an existing Wetpaint site to another platform.

See the video below to learn more about the project and process involved.

[middmedia cd6868ebca83648aedf8ca834ba11026 hstafford Inferno.mp4 width:600 height:400]

Integrating Blogging

This is the second screencast published on this site that is based on an interview Alex Chapin did with Prof. Louisa Stein from the Film and Media Culture department.  In this screencast Prof. Stein discusses her course on Millennial Media.  In this course, students were required to create their own blogs and to post to Twitter.

[middmedia E966CA341E9D26A5EA67ECDE36E4C402 achapin teachwithtech-stein-fmmc0254-04.mp4 width:400 height:254]

To encourage students to read each other’s work, Prof. Stein created “blog collectives” and required students to comment on the blogs of students in their collective.  An additional site was set up for the course that aggregated posts from all student blogs using the FeedWordPress plugin.

Wikipedia for Chemistry – Jeff Byers

What: Authoring and editing Wikipedia entries as an assignment in a senior elective course

Who: Jeff Byers, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Class: CHEM0442, Advanced Organic Chemistry.  This is a special topics course taken mostly by seniors, with some juniors, most of whom are chemistry or biochemistry majors.

Number of students: 9

Reason for using the technology: Most Senior Elective courses in the sciences culminate with some sort of final paper or project.  This project typically involves each student writing a detailed review paper on an interesting and advanced topic of their choice.  This is a worthwhile exercise, as each student learns an astonishing amount of detail on one specific topic.  These papers do not, in any way, reflect the important collaborative nature of science.  Jeff also believes that a senior elective course should also generate content of use to the entire chemistry community, unlike research papers which, after grading, rarely surface again. Continue reading “Wikipedia for Chemistry – Jeff Byers”

Middlebury Trailrunner Blog – Jeff Byers

middlebury-mapleWhat: Middlebury Trailrunner Blog

Who: Jeff Byers, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Technologies used: Hardware: GPS watch, digital camera.  Software:  Google Earth, WordPress, Garmin software (allows seamless connection to Google Earth). When posting an altitude profile, Jeff does a screen shot off of the Garmin software and pastes it into MS Word.  Then he uses a shareware program called “Doc to Jpeg Converter” and crops it with Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Continue reading “Middlebury Trailrunner Blog – Jeff Byers”