Flipped/Blended Learning Badge

Flipped and blended learning are modern educational strategies, each of which comes with its own pros and cons. Flipped learning has students watch video lessons of course content prior to coming to school so that they can apply this content in the classroom with the support of the teacher (McCammon, 2011). Flipped learning allows the teacher the time to differentiate student work for their achievement level, whether this is below, at, or above grade level. This way, every student can be engaged in the work that they are doing because it provides them with an appropriate challenge (McCammon, 2011).

One potential challenge with flipped learning is access to technology. As described by McCammon (2011), flipped learning requires each student to watch a video outside of school. For students who do not have regular access to technology, this is not possible. To overcome this challenge, students could be provided with readings to do instead of watching videos. Although this may not be as engaging, it eliminates the need for technology.

Blended learning positions technology as an essential part of the learning process (Jonson, 2014). Rather than simply using technology in the classroom, the learning happens online, such as through forums. Blended learning allows students to decide what part of the curriculum they want to work on at any given time, independent of their classmates (Jonson, 2014). As a result, differentiated learning - an important teaching strategy - is built into blended learning, making differentiation easier for teachers to implement.

One potential challenge with blended learning is the teacher's level of knowledge and comfort with technology. Since student learning is being demonstrated through technology, it is essential that teachers know how to use the tools that they are asking their students to use (Jonson, 2014). Although this could also apply to flipped learning, teachers are more involved in the technology of blended learning, where the learning process happens through technology, than that of flipped learning, where they must give students access to a video (Jonson, 2014; McCammon, 2011). To overcome this challenge, teachers may want to attend professional development workshops that focus on the tools that they want to use in their classrooms. Furthermore, there are many tools, such as Google Classroom (n.d.), that are quite user friendly and include clear help guides.

References

Google (n.d.). Google Classroom. Retrieved from https://classroom.google.com/

Google for Education (2019, January 8). Classroom 101 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeOVe2YV2Io

Jonson, J. [Jen Jonson]. (2014, January 20). Blended learning and technology integration [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD8AUfGsCKg&t=10s

McCammon, L. [Lodge McCammon]. (2011, May 2). Why I flipped my classroom [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aGuLuipTwg&t=1s

Moovly (2017, October 5). Moovly: Flipped vs blended learning. What's the difference? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUoNzlMLY5U