Videos, flipped classroom, microlearning, mobile learning, etc.

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28/11/2015 by Anne-Maarit

I am totally ecstatic about the different new ways to learn. I think it is great that technology is making it possible for us to learn in so many new ways that everyone surely finds a good way how he or she learns the most effectively. Of course it creates it hard for the schools to think about their resources and even what they promise that the students will learn.

One of the new learning /teaching methods is flipped classroom. First time I ran across this thinking was in my new work at HAMK where this approach has been used for YAMK studies already for a few years. They have been seeing good learning results with this method. Now we are also in AMK-studies discussing how to utilize the method. By the way, if you are hearing about flipped classroom for the first time, please have a look at this short explanation video.

During the fall I have tested various applications of flipped classroom, not just with videos but different materials and with different tools and different ways of running the courses. First it felt easy, but the further I test I realize there are  various issues which do not function that well. The best results so far are from my Marketing research course for the youngsters, whom I meet weekly for a guidance session. So in this case it is more about blended learning.

The hardships I have encountered are from the virtual teaching area. Over 60 % of my classes in virtual setting to adults. For them I have been looking for ways to utilize videos, micro learning, flipped classroom, etc. and create a big picture for myself on this matter. These were as well my advanced studies for the Vocational Teacher Studies.

During my further investigation I have found very useful materials on video learning, flipped classroom, micro learning and blended learning. So here is a short summary on them. But as I already earlier commented, I am still struggling on what would be the ideal way of combining these to the setting we have in HAMK to ensure good learning experience, learning results and also not to use immense time for either planning, evaluating or guiding the students.

Video learning

I found this interesting article about video learning and how videos are changing education as well as businesses. I think videos are a tool to use, not a method of learning. Videos are very useful and even powerful in learning and they can be utilized in all the learning methods if so decided. In some cases they can save time and resources, but in some cases making of a teaching video is just lost time.

Flipped Classroom/Flipped Learning and utilizing videos

Great TED session with Salman Khan, who has created the Khan Academy with thousands of learning videos and flipped classroom logic. I think Khan Academy is one of the best examples of flipped learning at the moment so even the video is quite long (c. 20 min), I think it is worth watching.

 

Here is a good short summary on flipped classroom in Slideshare.

Then I found from Pinterest an infograph on how to utilize flipped classroom with adults. The graph contains concrete example on how to start a course with adults, but it is still missing the part, how to run the concrete course – also the part I am missing.

Here is also some ideas on flipped classroom some of which I actually already tried out, like making a training video, creating an info graph (“poster”). I think these are very useful as teaching activities, but they still do not solve the basic issue, how to cut down the amount of resources needed for each course online.

Micro learning

Micro learning is about utilizing technology for short learning sprints. Videos, googling an issue,  Micro learning is something which is also utilized in business world at the moment as a method. As I see it, I have been personally doing this for ages, at least as long as I have had a smart phone, but I think it can be used much more consistently if it is conscious.

Here is  a really great post on micro learning – I do suggest you scan it through and utilize the links in the post. Think if there is something you can utilize for you own purposes. It can be for your teaching or for even business related learning.

 

http://elearningindustry.com/awesome-resources-on-micro-learning

p.s. did you know Twitter is the most popular micro learning platform of our times :)?

Blended learning

There is also blended learning which means having some of the sessions face-to-face, but utilizing the logic of flipped learning.  I have used blended learning i.e. in my Marketing research course with the youngsters, they work on their project and every week they come to a guidance session with me to discuss where they are at and what are the problems they have come across. We also agree on how they’ll go further. I think this has been the most successful of my courses so far.

If you want to understand further the difference between flipped learning and blended learning, please see this blog article.

That’s all for now. I will figure out these methods further and come back.

-Anne-Maarit-