Museumclasses is on the cutting edge of educational innovation. When we pioneered online continuing education for museum staff nine years ago, there wasn't a name for it, but "flipping" just made sense to us. Why waste valuable student interaction time with lectures? Lectures that could be posted for students to absorb on their own time. Use the face time for questions, problem-solving and specific issues related to the class topic. In our courses, our face time, the scheduled chats, are used to clarify experimental procedures, ask for more information about a topic, and problem solve issues specific to each student's museum situation. As one of our instructors explained to me, students are getting valuable consulting time from an expert in the field, as well as input from students who have similar issues at their institution.
According to
The Flipped Class Blog "most people are currently defining the flipped classroom as a class in which the lectures are watched at home and the class time is used to work on what used to be assigned as homework. But this version of the flipped class, is only one iteration of the flipped classroom." This is too narrow a definition.
Aaron Sams in
There is no such thing as THE flipped classroom suggests that "When you read anything about The Flipped Classroom mentally substitute 'a class that uses screencasts as an instructional tool.'"
I don't believe that what is done in the classroom is what used to be assigned as homework. Not if you are working with a top notch educator. Instead, the classroom becomes an opportunity to enrich the educational experience, more in line with Socratic teaching or the graduate seminar. Students are expected to have done their homework. To have viewed the lectures, read additional texts, and completed their assignments. Assignments are the traditional homework, and still done outside of class time. However, the class time, the valuable time with the expert on the topic, is used to flesh out the lecture and relate it to the real world. We have found that students who take our classes, but do not bother to join the class chats, normally score the educational experience two points lower (on a ten point scale) than those who attend all of the chats.
Flipping puts the onus on the student. You will not be spoon-fed information. Instructors expect you to attend the class prepared, having done the background work. This works well in an online learning environment. Students expect to be proactive and read and react in order to get everything out of the learning experience. In a "traditional classroom," students may be a little more shocked by the expectation that they should come to class prepared, having already viewed the lecture.
A recent article in the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune alludes to an instructor's needing to make the lecture interesting in order for students to retain interest as they view it. Preparing a lecture for consumption outside of the traditional classroom is the same as creating a publication. It must be well edited, have good graphics, and be well organized. No one wants to listen to a talking head. Or a monotone voice. We have opted to use written lectures combined with Powerpoint slide shows to reduce the problems of accents, poorly enunciated words, and the boredom of a talking head.
Finally, Sams points out that "It would be foolish for any educator to adopt a model of instruction and never evaluate the efficacy of the model." We are constantly looking for better ways to impart information.
Given that there are
seven different learning styles, anyone attempting to educate, needs to ensure that all seven are given an opportunity to excel in the classroom. This means providing different learning methods to teach the same idea. Repetition is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes telling someone isn't going to work. Sometimes they have to do it to learn.
What we are attempting to do with museumclasses.org is:
1. make top-quality, cutting edge museum information available to anybody, anywhere.
2. provide access to experts in museum topics, who can help students problem-solve for their specific situation.
3. provide a variety of learning tools and methods to help students understand and learn.
4. maximize face time with the experts.
5. And, probably most important to us, build an international community, creating networks that will expand all of our knowledge and understanding. Because, in truth, our experts learn from the students, too. Which is why they continue to enjoy teaching online.
Maybe we are "flipped." Because we believe, and see, that knowledge is not merely transmitted from an expert to the students, but flows in many directions, including between students and back to the expert.