Every day 7.2 million students walk into classrooms
throughout the United States.
These classrooms generally look the same;
30 students sit in rows of desks taking notes
in their notebooks while the teacher stands
at a whiteboard teaching the lesson.
Regardless of ability level,
each student receives the exact same information at the exact same pace.
As Ms. Jackson presents the same material,
students respond differently;
Tommy gets it,
while Allison is bored and Maria is lost.
At the end of the day these same students head home.
While at home they sit at the kitchen table doing
their homework and try to remember what Ms. Jackson said.
Students like Tommy make it most of the way through the homework,
while others like Allison find it easy and fly through it.
At the same time,
students like Maria get frustrated and need some extra help.
Ms. Jackson recognizes that students have different needs
and would love to work individually with each student,
but this requires time and resources
that her school does not have.
One solution to this problem is the flipped classroom;
here's what it looks like.
While at home students sit in their rooms watching videos
of the lesson that Ms. Jackson assigned.
Tommy is still able to work at his normal pace.
Allison is no longer bored because now she can use
this new technology to fast-forward through the easy material.
And Maria is no longer frustrated
because she can review the material
that she didn't understand by pausing and rewinding.
When she really gets stuck,
she can get help from her classmates.
New technology platforms like Moodle and Edmodo
make it easy for her to chat online with her classmates.
Just as the homework is different,
the classroom is different at well.
Instead of standing in front of the room speaking,
Ms. Jackson walks around the room.
She checks in with Tommy as he works collaboratively with some students.
She pushes Allison further with some more challenging work.
And she helps Maria with the pieces
that she still doesn't quite get.
In the traditional model the teacher stands between
the students and the knowledge,
but with the flipped classroom model the students have
direct access to the knowledge and the teacher serves
as a coach, mentor and guide,
helping the students access this knowledge.
The flipped classroom leverages technology in a
way that lets both Ms. Jackson and
the students make the most of their time and efforts.