Saturday, April 21, 2012
Khan Academy.... Will the teacher be nonexistent???
Below is a video about the growing popular Khan Academy. This free tutorial website is packed with videos containing laid back explanations of areas including math to science and history. These videos are greatly popular with teachers interested in flipping. Instead of "creating the wheel", many teachers turn to these videos. I have also begun to use Khan Academy with my students. I have a couple of videos linked to my class Google site. What has been interesting, is I seem to be getting pulled in two different directions. Many colleagues as well as administration love the idea of flipping and encourage me to explore the idea. I also see encouragement through my grad courses and how flipping is becoming such a revolution for education. However, I recently attended a meeting where the idea of flipping and creating videos is a scary thought, which has made me leery to the implementation in my room. There was a concern that the concept of flipping can essentially eliminate the teacher, causing us to be useless. I can see where this argument is coming from, and it did inspire me to blog on this topic. When I think about myself, the use of the videos in my class are to get the main note-taking down. I want students to spend home time instead of classroom time writing definitions and copying down basic examples. Once the students come to class, I have them delve deeper into the topic. I am essential to the learning process because I am coming up with the critical thinking examples. Students just learn the basics at home. So, personally, I do not think that flipping eliminates the role of a teacher, it just allows time in the classroom for the teacher to come up with more valuable activities and examples. What do you think? Do you think that flipping will eliminate the need for a teacher??
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree that the teacher's role will remain critical. After all, the teacher needs to select the videos and follow up in class. In addition, there will be students who are not motivated to view the videos at home. Moreover, students learn in different ways, and not all learners will learn well from videos. Think of Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence as well as theories about handson-learning. Other theorists will also argue that some students need to learn through interpersonal relationships--these students will need teachers in the classroom. This video does point out the problem of lectures in learning. If this is true, then also lectures in videos will not work for those students who don't learn well in that format.
ReplyDeleteExactly, a teacher is a vital component to a flipped classroom, which is a contradiction to the advice being given to the teachers at the meeting I attended. The meeting was pertained to technology and what our boundaries are as teachers, like with social networking and such. Flipping came up, and a concern was of a teacher video taping themselves in a tutorial. The tutorials I have created have only been of a screen cast and my voice, which I think is vastly different. But again, I became skepitcal of whether to continue.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the teacher will never stop playing a role with the learning process of students. Technology can not and will not replace teachers. Teachers still need to create the lessons used in a flipped classroom. The concept of a flipped classroom is for students to begin to understand the idea behind a concept. The classroom then becomes the area for the students to apply the concepts. This allows teachers to spend more time assessing student learning. I also agree that all students have different styles of learning. Flipped classrooms may work for some students, but will not work for all students. With this and like teachers do for all lessons, modifications needed to be performed. My concern would be the students that do not go home and watch the information for next class, how behind will they be. But then, is this any different then having them take a textbook home to read and be prepared for the next class? Teachers are here to stay, and technology can not replace teaching, just enhance the process.
ReplyDelete