Friday 30 August 2013

Creating Content Resources for a Flipped Classroom


The concept of a Flipped Classroom isn’t a complex one. It simply means that students receive the content material at home and when in class, teachers help students to put the content into context. Now, the most common question is, “How do we provide the content for students to use at home?”  


There are many ways that this can be done. It can be as easy and simple as assigning articles and textbooks for students to read, to very complex videos. As long as students are receiving some content at home, and not being lectured in class, it can be called a flipped classroom.

Now, since I teach upper level mathematics, which requires some direct instruction, I chose the video route.


There are many options on how to create a video. My typical style is to have my notes on the computer screen and just have my voice recorded as I go through the notes. I have tried two ways of achieving this task. Using a program called Jing and Quicktime on the Mac. Both are free options and are simple to use. Here’s a comparison of two, based on my experience.


Jing vs Quicktime
Jing
Quicktime



Advantages

-Can be stored online and share with a weblink (screencast.com)
- Concise. Only allows 5 min of recording which is excellent for student project to keep a time limit.

- Able to edit with the right apps
- Can easily change the file format to use in other mediums
- Able to view offline when downloaded


Disadvantages
- Not editable
- File format cannot be changed for other use
- Storing online after a certain amount costs money
- Large file sizes to upload and download
- As the videos are built, larger storage space required


I found the Jing files much more useful when posting the videos on our school’s learning management system, such as wiki and Schoology. However, I ran into problems when I needed the recordings as an mp4 to upload it for my iTunes U course, so I’m having to re-screencast my Jing files with Quicktime. There is also a program called Camtasia that allows you to do both. You can edit, save as whatever file format you want, and be able to upload to screencast.com for a web link to share, but the program has to be purchased and the storage space also needs to be purchased the same way that Jing does.

So, my advice is to really think about how you would like to manage your files with your students and choose the route that is more suitable for your needs and what your budget allows.


Here's an example of one of my screencasts. Clicking on the image will take you the link of the video at screencast.com.









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