Flipped Learning 3.0

I just attended a webinar presented by Jon Bergmann, author of Flip Your Classroom, and one of the founders of the Flipped Learning Global Initiative. The webinar was expanding on his blog post, “We Didn’t Know What We Didn’t Know: Flipped Learning 3.0“, which is a good read on the current state of flipped or blended learning across the globe. I’ll repeat his key points, with my comments on each one, and you can follow the link above to read more of his own.

Five Things We Didn’t Know about Flipped Learning

1. Flipped Learning Is Not Static
   • I’ve never felt that flipped or blended learning had to be static, and have always resisted people’s urge to pigeon-holing it. As a Blackboard trainer and digital pedagogy/scholarship consultant, I’ve always pointed out that simply uploading course content into an LMS, making it online accessible to students, is the the first step toward blended learning. Using more of an LMS’ features is getting more into it.
2. Flipped Learning is Evolving Because of Three Factors
   • Research
     • He cites several studies that have shifted from “Does blended learning work?” to “How can we improve it?”
   • Classroom Innovation
     • This is closely related to the next factor…
   • New technology
     • It’s a constantly changing landscape, with lots of new and/or improved offers every year or less!
3. Flipped Learning Has Emerged As a Global Movement
   • He’s got several examples of his work around the world. This is truly exciting.
4. There Is a New Awareness Emerging About Flipped Learning
   • This was the big take-away from the webinar: Educators are no longer viewing flipped learning as a strategic teaching model; instead, they’re seeing it as a meta-platform for various other learning models. It’s becoming more of an operating system, while various learning options are seen like apps supported by it. This is a new paradigm.
5. There Is a Rapidly Expanding Set of New Possibilities
   • And, of course, this opens up lots of new possibilities for students, teachers, administrators, and edtech people like me. It’s an exciting field to be working in! I hope the faculty and educators I work with also feel the excitement.

I saw glimpses of this at the Ohio Educational Technology Conference last week, and, as usual, got some good ideas and learned of new apps as well.