OLTD 502- Digital Learning Continuum
The chaos, the fire hose, and a good driver
Learning Goals Met:
Clearly, flipped classrooms have great advantages in the online world. Students who are away from the classroom or if they did not fully understand a concept, then they can easily revisit past lessons and catch up on missed material. Students can spend more classroom time going wider or deeper into the curriculum and thereby having a better understanding of the material taught. Students could even go ahead and complete work ahead for more challenge or if they know they have a busy schedule in the future. Flipping a classroom meets the needs of all learners. A flipped classroom could easily be a precursor to a fully online learning environment.
In Katie Gimbar’s follow up videos, she describes how to flip your classroom in a step by step fashion. She has a lot of videos on the more practical side of flipping a classroom.
Although flipping a classroom has clear advantages, it does not come without a lot of preplanning and effort on behalf of the teacher. However, this strategy has great potential to use student’s strengths (computer knowledge) to challenge them both online and in classroom environments. By using a flipped classroom model opens the door to use online resources that are appropriate for both online and classroom environments. The learners will be challenged and, at the same time, master learning at their own pace (remediation as needed), and teachers will have time for effective differentiation in their classroom.
Although I have not personally flipped my classroom, I have had some excellent results by having students “play” at home. Powermylearning and 10monkeys were used to learn about angles and triangles. http://powermylearning.org/education/learning/educational-games-activities
https://www.10monkeys.com/ca/
My grade three students did not have any prior knowledge, but after “playing” selected games for a couple of days at home, they had mastered all the learning outcomes before I even began to introduce them. Flipped classrooms work!
- Plan learning opportunities most suitable to the strengths and challenges of a variety of environments
- Select strategies and resources appropriate for environment, learners and learning outcomes
Clearly, flipped classrooms have great advantages in the online world. Students who are away from the classroom or if they did not fully understand a concept, then they can easily revisit past lessons and catch up on missed material. Students can spend more classroom time going wider or deeper into the curriculum and thereby having a better understanding of the material taught. Students could even go ahead and complete work ahead for more challenge or if they know they have a busy schedule in the future. Flipping a classroom meets the needs of all learners. A flipped classroom could easily be a precursor to a fully online learning environment.
In Katie Gimbar’s follow up videos, she describes how to flip your classroom in a step by step fashion. She has a lot of videos on the more practical side of flipping a classroom.
Although flipping a classroom has clear advantages, it does not come without a lot of preplanning and effort on behalf of the teacher. However, this strategy has great potential to use student’s strengths (computer knowledge) to challenge them both online and in classroom environments. By using a flipped classroom model opens the door to use online resources that are appropriate for both online and classroom environments. The learners will be challenged and, at the same time, master learning at their own pace (remediation as needed), and teachers will have time for effective differentiation in their classroom.
Although I have not personally flipped my classroom, I have had some excellent results by having students “play” at home. Powermylearning and 10monkeys were used to learn about angles and triangles. http://powermylearning.org/education/learning/educational-games-activities
https://www.10monkeys.com/ca/
My grade three students did not have any prior knowledge, but after “playing” selected games for a couple of days at home, they had mastered all the learning outcomes before I even began to introduce them. Flipped classrooms work!
Putting Universal Design for Learning into practice
Learning outcomes
The specific evidence that I have chosen is my final assignment for 502. In this assignment I compare using traditional methods of teaching to the Universal Design for learning method. First, I compare methods in written form to show step by step my approach to teaching. Next, I tested my new methods by using the lessons directly in my grade 3 classroom. Through hands on experience I gained direct evidence to the advantages for both the teacher and student using the U.D.L. model. The U.D.L. principles can not only be used in the classroom, but used online as well. Using advanced organizers and conceptual models will aid students by giving them structure and knowledge of what they will be learning. With students knowing what they need to learn, they can now choose how they would like to learn it. Choice is an important part of the U.D.L. method. Allowing students to choose the type of assignment helps to account for various learning styles. By meeting the student’s needs, learning outcomes will more likely be met.
Having implemented the U.D.L. method, I can speak directly to the evidence provided by my students, and how I felt after completing the lesson(s). Students enjoyed having choice and showing their learning in a variety of ways. They were able to pick assignments that worked to their strengths. Some preferred to complete assignments that challenged their abilities. As a teacher, I noticed that student’s more often exceeded expectation then they had on previous assignments and more students met the learning outcomes. Some students still needed to be redirected or have their choices limited, but this was manageable. As a teacher, the work load to prepare the assignments was about the same as in the past. The class management improved, allowing me to facilitate student’s learning.
Having experienced directly with students to see their challenges with the U.D.L. method will enable me to understand better how an online student might feel. Knowing what works best, will allow me to organize assignments so that students will know what is expected. Allowing choice is good, but a focused choice is even better. If students are able choose from using various learning styles this will enhance their learning the most.
- Incorporate Universal Design for Learning (U.D.L.) principles
- Select strategies and resources appropriate for environment, learners and learning outcomes
The specific evidence that I have chosen is my final assignment for 502. In this assignment I compare using traditional methods of teaching to the Universal Design for learning method. First, I compare methods in written form to show step by step my approach to teaching. Next, I tested my new methods by using the lessons directly in my grade 3 classroom. Through hands on experience I gained direct evidence to the advantages for both the teacher and student using the U.D.L. model. The U.D.L. principles can not only be used in the classroom, but used online as well. Using advanced organizers and conceptual models will aid students by giving them structure and knowledge of what they will be learning. With students knowing what they need to learn, they can now choose how they would like to learn it. Choice is an important part of the U.D.L. method. Allowing students to choose the type of assignment helps to account for various learning styles. By meeting the student’s needs, learning outcomes will more likely be met.
Having implemented the U.D.L. method, I can speak directly to the evidence provided by my students, and how I felt after completing the lesson(s). Students enjoyed having choice and showing their learning in a variety of ways. They were able to pick assignments that worked to their strengths. Some preferred to complete assignments that challenged their abilities. As a teacher, I noticed that student’s more often exceeded expectation then they had on previous assignments and more students met the learning outcomes. Some students still needed to be redirected or have their choices limited, but this was manageable. As a teacher, the work load to prepare the assignments was about the same as in the past. The class management improved, allowing me to facilitate student’s learning.
Having experienced directly with students to see their challenges with the U.D.L. method will enable me to understand better how an online student might feel. Knowing what works best, will allow me to organize assignments so that students will know what is expected. Allowing choice is good, but a focused choice is even better. If students are able choose from using various learning styles this will enhance their learning the most.