Flip That Class!

Lately, maybe you've heard of "flipping" the classroom - or maybe you've already flipped yours! Basically it's a "reversal" of the standard use of class time to "deliver" course content, with students doing independent and, perhaps, group work outside of class sessions.

So in a flipped class, students are learning the material independently outside of class and class time is used for activities like q & a, small groups comparing their interpretations of material, problem-solving, games, etc.There's no a cookie- cutter; there are many models for using class time this way, and as Andrew Martin points out in the Chronicle of Higher Ed, it's not new. The comments also bring in some interesting points about context and learning styles on both sides: 

http://chronicle.com/article/How-Flipping-the-Classroom/130857/


And here's a YouTube video from Penn State that walks through the basic logistics of Flipping the Classroom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26pxh_qMppE&context=C4ea3421ADvjVQa1PpcFNGoyORoBG1wYMoVa2PVKUB5cmNm3i_uAI= .

In leading seminars, my co-leaders and I try to use a model like this as much as possible, so that the time we have together face to face utilizes the fact that we are a diverse, multi-disciplinary group of educators who have the ability to help and maybe even push each other to think about developing effective and innovative learning activities. Phew, that was quite a sentence!

checking in

As the semester is whizzing by with getting the word out about next year's CTL seminars, working on the college's Middle States accreditation process, co-leading the Designed For Learning 2.0 seminar and most of all, re-designing the CTL website, I have wandered far from posting here on any kind of regular basis.

But I have to write about yesterday's conference "The Digital University: Power Relations, Publishing, Authority and Community in the 21st Century Academy", organized by CUNY "faculty members, researchers and doctoral students affiliated with the CUNY Graduate Center’s Digital Media Studies Group, in collaboration with the Center for the Humanities and the New Media Lab".

It was interesting to hear a range of perspectives on the intense ripple effect that digital media is causing in academic culture. With pedagogy, these discussions are very familiar even though the technologies change - but the issues around academic publishing were intriguing.

One outstanding presentation was by Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Assoc. Prof. of Media Studies at Pomona College, and the author of Planned Obsolescence:Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy, which is available via Media Commons.

Several times during the day I mentioned our Commmunity 2.0 project, and there was great interest in it.

BTW, if you're affiliated with CUNY and have not already done so, you can join the CUNY Academic Commons, which is how I learned of the conference. It's a great way to connect with innovative folks around the University.

Some of the conference documentation occurred in "real time" via twitter. I tried tweeting during a couple of the sessions. It was interesting to have divided attention (and also at times to read who was tweeting what. It's tough to tweet from my phone, and I noticed that my tweets don't appear in the collection from the conference. Whether they were deemed unworthy or there was some tech glitch is a mystery. At any rate, if I do any more intensive tweeting for an event, it will be with a laptop or some device with a manageable keyboard.

That Back-up Plan May Come In Handy

While I continue trying to find my role in this fantastic project, there are a few things running through my mind. For instance, I hope by the time I write this that Phyllis has been able to iron out the glitches and get into her class ning: World Lit in English. Which is BTW a visually enticing site that I can only imagine students not being able to resist. So completely different-looking than, say, Blackboard.

One important reminder from the bumps in the road that inevitably happen sometimes, despite hours of preparation and moments of finger-crossing (and this is good to remember whether you're teaching students or facilitating faculty) - is to have a back up plan - just in case!

If anyone wants to brainstorm about possible Plan B scenarios, just let me know.

Rubric for Grading Students' Blog Posts

Thanks to Jiyeon Lee of the CTL for sharing resources by U. Penn's Prof. Chris Long (Philosophy).
His Blogging Scoring Rubric looks excellent - extremely useful since it nuances types of posts, looking at content contribution, clarity and mechanics, reference and support, and connection with other blogs and resources.

Professor Long also has a YouTube video (15:44) called Pedagogy of Blogging . While I haven't seen it yet, at first glance it looks interesting and helpful .

Games For Change Festival - May 24 - 27

The tagline of Games4Change is "Real world games, Real world impact" . G4C's mission is to provide "support, visibility and shared resources to individuals and organizations using and designing digital games for social change." Not only does the site offer resources about games and learning, you can play actual games organized by theme or "channel", including: Human Rights, Public Health, Global Conflict, and more.

And their 7th annual festival is coming up in May, right here in NYC! For full info, visit: http://www.gamesforchange.org/fest2010

In addition to the opportunity for hands-on play of innovative, social-issue focused games you would probably not get to play otherwise, interesting presenters (including James Paul Gee and Clay Shirky) will be speaking this year.

Let the Games Begin

Last Friday, after missing many of their gatherings, I was finally able to attend "Final Fridays: A Monthly Gathering of CUNY Faculty and Staff Interested in Game-Based Interactive Pedagogy". If it sounds interesting and you work for CUNY, you can join the Games Network group through the CUNY Commons: http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/games-teaching-and-learning/home/.

Joe Bisz of BMCC led a workshop on developing games for use in the classroom. He started us off with a deck of cards based on work by Mary Flanagan, the artist, scholar, programmer, designer and educator (formerly at Hunter and now at Dartmouth) who, among her many accomplishments, developed the first computer game for girls.

From Joe's cards each group chose three categories (game, action, and lesson) then used the "random" selections to brainstorm the beginnings of a game for learning. For instance our groups' three cards were: Finding Sources [Lesson], Walking [Action], and Checkers [Game].

Like any good game-related event, this one was interactive, so we spent most of the time trying to figure out how to build a game with the elements we'd picked. Then each of the three groups presented to the others. There was a lot of interesting thinking around the room, and we decided to explore one of the ideas further at the next session.

commonalities

Since last I posted, I have become a member of the CUNY Academic Commons. It is set of fantastic resources and I'm so glad we have enough energetic souls throughout CUNY that they were willing and able to create it.

The feel is friendly and welcoming. It's also been useful: at least one blog has really helped as a resource for a grant we've been writing. There are many ways to connect with colleagues throught the university.

To sign up, go to: http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/