When technology boomed inside the territories of the global hemisphere, all aspects of human life were vastly affected. Especially, the educational sector brought in huge wonders. Students were shoved off the heavy burden of following the same boring
conventional educational methods. “Classroom flipping” was a hit, resulting in wide smiles on the murky faces of students and revival of new spirit of teaching in teachers.
· To begin with, classroom flipping requires that you reach to every student effectively. Listen to their queries, do on-the-spot mentoring and get them to pursue the rest of the class activities with enthusiasm. This process is successful only when instructions are moved from group learning space to individual learning space. Now what the hurdle here could be:
Reaching a wider audience effectively! : Because an instructor can handle a small mob at a time only. When every other student bombards him with questions and raises hand in every micro second, the teacher sits down with head in his hands.
· It is again well known that how extensively this method uses the support of online learning. This may involve watching video lectures at home and understanding the subject thoroughly to provide required feedback at school. What really is the hurdle here?
Access to technology: Not every student has internet at his home. Though it is a pretty bogus thing to consider in this modern era, but exceptions do exist. It is very difficult to get these learners move with the same pace the rest of the mob is moving at. Of course you can always burn the stuff on DVDs and CDs but that usually doesn’t work that effectively.
· It is also important that institutions that plan to implement this phenomenon shall be fully equipped with all the requirements of its setup. First procure all the resources you need then begin the game plan; here is where many academic setups face problems:
In adequate resources: If a school doesn’t have enough funds to manage computers equal to number of students, trust me the idea will fail badly. Obviously you can’t be wasting the precious time of students getting them in turns to use the computers and requiring that teacher repeat the lectures to students a million times.
· It is essential that teachers make sure that students are following the online stuff that is uploaded for their comprehension. If they do not keep track of the assignments and tutorials they will be unable to efficiently participate in classroom discussions. This is a drawback of flipping that probably is one of the biggest hurdles:
Keeping track is a tough job: Teachers are stuck at this point! They cannot do anything if students don’t watch the videos. They do not even know how to make sure that all students can access videos easily. Again, here the pre-requisite is that the learning group is concise. http://flippedclassroom.org/ is one learning network that shows how you can manage your web of students smoothly.
· This is pretty debatable that whether a physical lecture is more influential than a virtual one or the vice versa? Well both have their own pros and cons. A physical lecture is more open to ‘on the spot input’. Online lectures are more passive to feedback; obviously it is just one side deliverance. Let us see the problem in there.
The other cannot identify his queries immediately : Well, it largely depends on the type of individual as well. If he is immensely motivated to learn, he will make sticky notes in his/her mind to ask the teacher later in the discussion. Where as many would simply yawn while watching the videos and stare at the teacher with blank expressions at the time of discussion
Therefore an in-depth analysis says that classroom flipping is a bingo idea, only if handled tactfully and intelligently…
