Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Our Kid's Already Flip

As we were heading to the library tonight to return some books, my daughter (age 9) remarked how much she loved the fact that the makers of Rainbow Loom had their instructions on You Tube. Without any prompting from me she provided her reasons:

1) That way they don't have to use a lot of paper to print out instructions.

2) That way she can actually see what they are doing, instead of just reading.

3) She is able to pause the instructional video and do it at her own speed. She can take her time.

I thought about how directly this relates to a Flipped Classroom/Blended Learning approach. If she is in grade 4 and is able to direct herself to her favourite website to learn about a hobby she likes to participate in, how difficult would it be for her to access educational material online?

Students are already accessing how-to and self help videos all over You Tube - how to solve a Rubik's Cube, how to beat a level in a video game, how to perform a skate boarding trick...

It really isn't such a "NEW" idea for students to access material on the internet they need to educate themselves.

As teachers we really just need to adapt what WE are doing so that it fits in with how our students are already accessing the information they need.