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Audrey Watters, Hacked Education

Learning, Innovation & Tech

Bombs & Breakthroughs

The Flipped Class Manifest

December 1, 2011 9:58 PM

Photo: Document with Red Line by Dukeii (Editor's Note: The conversation and interest in the flipped class continues . . . From our very first post about this topic in January 2011 to date, The Daily Riff has received approx. 55,000 page views from the posts about this topic - which are linked below -  extending to over 100 countries.  Today's post is authored by eight notable advocates for the flipped classroom. Thanks goes to our contributors, and of course, our avid readers.  Disclosure: The Daily Riff is not financially affiliated in any way with the flipped class.  - C.J. Westerberg)

"The Flipped Classroom is an intentional shift of content which in turn helps move students back to the center of learning rather than the products of schooling." The Flipped Class Manifest

image from www.apple.com/education

Obviously, every tech site ever on the internet is taking time to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the new iPhone 4S that was announced yesterday at Apple's exclusive Let's Talk iPhone event.  Audrey Watters at Mind/Shift takes an interesting look at the personalized learning aspects of Apple's newest update and presents some applicable uses of the iOS features in the classroom, including the new Siri assistant feature which would allow students to search data mines such as WolframAlpha that have yet been really brought into many classrooms.

However, I think the biggest win for education yesterday was the drop in price of the iPod Touch.  This device, now with a $199 base price (8GB model), has huge potential in a classroom, and I am still lost on the fact that schools have yet to realize the many uses for their students.  While it does not provide the perfect eReader/textbook replacement that many schools are currently looking for, it does tap into what the larger point that Audrey is making about the personalized learning context such a device can provide to students.

Beyond the obvious uses in the classroom provided by apps dedicated to specific content or courses (see here), I have long thought that the free resources such as podcasts and videos provided in iTunesU have been under utilized in secondary and higher education.  There is something to be said about the comfortability/intimacy that occurs when a student, wearing headphones, is privately watching a lesson held in their hands on a device like an iPod Touch.  I haven't such much research in this area, and I do not want to imply that it is the end solution to save education, but with a price drop to $199, the iPod Touch could be a step towards removing financial obstacles for a school to bring more classrooms into the "Flipped Model" that is becoming extremely popular.

Apple seems to think so - see their site dedicated to the schools that are in fact putting this model into place and have been for several years.