Communicate Your Goals
Technology initiatives are most successful when schools receive buy-in from not only their students and teachers, but also parents and other key stakeholders.
Teachers looking to flip their classrooms need to communicate what their goals are in transitioning to a flipped classroom, and what parents and members of the community can do to help make the transition smooth and successful.
“Teachers need to ask themselves, ‘Am I talking to my parents about this? Am I updating them on where we are on the path to making this happen?'” says Barkley.
Because students are receiving instruction and learning new concepts at home, it is important parents understand the structure of the flipped model on the same level as teachers and students.
Having a strong understanding of how their child is learning can help parents not only support their child throughout the learning process but also help them communicate better with teachers as to how their child is learning at home.
Because students are receiving instruction and learning new concepts at home, it is important parents understand the structure of the flipped model on the same level as teachers and students.
Furthermore, communicating the right message to parents is key to gaining their support for the flipped classroom.
“You really want to make sure that the language around this transition is that [the flipped classroom] is research proven, it has been done in a lot of classrooms, and it will allow your kids to learn better and learn more skills, rather than saying that you’re completely throwing everything out and starting with something new,” says Barkley.
Barkley also adds that involving students in the transition can help teachers leverage new ideas for instruction and learning, and also help to continue to update parents and the community.
“I’ve seen some really amazing things where kids take turns being the communications person for the classroom. They’re doing things like tweeting and putting messages up on blogs and updating their parents and telling the narrative about how the classroom was about to change into this amazing new way of learning.”
Inviting all key stakeholders to be involved in the transition to a flipped learning environment helps build support for both teachers and students and often leads to a successful technology initiative.
Integrate the Right Tools
In addition to ensuring the community has a strong understanding of what the flipped classroom is and how it can improve students’ learning, teachers need to consider how they are going use tools to support a curriculum that will accomplish the goals they set forth with the flipped model.
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“Teachers must first consider the content and curriculum that would benefit most from a flipped learning model. Once they have those lessons in mind, they can experiment with different media that integrate well to convey course concepts,” said Ridgway. “A thoughtful transition to flipped learning is essential to make sure control isn’t shifted to students without proper guidance and tech support.”
There a various tools teachers can choose from that support flipped learning, but teachers need to ensure they are adopting the right tools that will not only enhance their curriculum, but also provide equal access to students.
“One of the barriers I see is teachers will [integrate tools] that only run in Chrome or Windows or Apple. You have to have tools that can be used on any device, anywhere. That’s a really important piece people don’t often think about,” says Barkley.
Furthermore, teachers need to take into consideration that not all students have access to devices at home.
“When I first started doing this, I didn’t do as much as I would have liked to because access was a problem with my students,” says Murray. “After doing this for a few years, my school is catching up with me and now all of our students have Chromebooks.”
If students do not have access to their own devices, schools need to consider implementing a 1:1 program with mobile devices in order for the flipped classroom to benefit each and every student.
