Collaborative Learning: Flipped classroom and ICT tools for Teachers

Hello Readers,

I recently attended a workshop titled ''Flipped Classroom'', which was organised by the IQAC of Parvatibai Chowgule College or Arts and Science, Autonomous, Margao Goa and was conducted by Prof. Dr Vasudha Kamat, former vice chancellor, SNDT Women's University Mumbai and Ms. Manali Joshi, Instructional Designer, Department of Educational Technology, SNDT Women's University Mumbai. In this blog post I am going share my views on collaborative classroom teaching and try to highlight some ''Information and Communication Technology (ICT)'' tools which can be integrated in your teaching to achieve better learning outcomes from your students. lets start... 

In the 21st century, higher education teachers face many a challenges in the classroom some of which are, Large number of students (>20), Short attention spans of students driven by mobile phone addiction, Mute spectator students leading to less engaging or boring lectures, diverse background of the students etc.. therefore there is an urgent need to teach the way students will learn. Traditional methods of classroom teaching, which is a teacher-centred approach alone cannot yield the desired learning outcomes from the students. The dynamics of the classroom needs to be changed from a Teacher-Centred to a Learner-Centred approach. Let me explain. In a traditional classroom a teacher would dedicate tremendous amount of class-time in giving knowledge to the students ( e.g. dictating class note) and considerably less time in analysis of the information which is actually the difficult task to grasp from a students perspective. In the present day, information can be made available at a click of a button therefore a modern day teacher should be able to achieve better outcomes by integrating the right ''Information and Communication Technology'' tools in their classrooms to supplement knowledge sharing and committing more time to analysis and evaluation of the information through a collaborative learning approach. 

Collaborative Learning? what is it?
Collaborative Learning is a teaching approach where the teacher facilitates learning by making the students engage in activities (in class or out of class) e.g. Group discussions, Debates, Group projects, Online Video, online discussion forums, online chats etc. In this kind of approach the students interact, evaluate, assess and guide one another to learn from each other as a group and create new knowledge. Here is a list of four core principle of collaborative learning  Collaborative classroom may be aided by the help of various ICT tools, this brings us to the flipped classroom strategy.

So lets hear what the pioneer Jon Bergmann has to say about flipped learning..

  

       Here is another video which simplifies flipped learning...

 

hoping that by now you have got a fair idea of what a Flipped classroom is, lets move on to some in Class activities which you could employ for a collaborative classroom approach.

a) Round Robin: Effective strategy for generating and sharing of ideas. 

   

b) Three step Interview: Effective in developing 3 basic skills in students which are Skill of Questioning, Listening and Time management.

 c) Jigsaw Puzzle : An excellent strategy for team building.

d) Team-Pair-Solo: This method can be effectively used for problem solving.

e) Four Corners: Beware!This method can make your class very dynamic. Effective in developing critical Thinking, Decision Making, Verbal Communication, Listening to and Respecting others opinion and more. 

There are plenty of interesting collaborative learning methods, these are just a few among those, I am sure these fantastic five have got you thinking by now, so go ahead and explore more on the internet for all things ;). 

Its time to move on to our next topic i.e. ICT tools for teachers. These tools might seem to be overwhelming for some at first sight but believe me they are not.  With plenty of help tips and startup guidance available, one should be able to master these tools with ease. If not than the benefits they bring to your classroom will easily override the effort which you will put in understanding them.''Stick to your Guns'' because here comes the lists..

1) Open Educational Resources (General): There are a plenty of websites and web portals catering to the needs of students and teachers for free the lists is extensive with some catering to very specific subjects. I am making no attempt to highlight the best or the widely used. These are just a few that I have found useful.    

• Khanacademy.org : This one has been my life saver in the past for learning derivatives and other complicated mathematics. It caters to diverse subjects and keeps a practical approach in all of its tutorials. 
• Slideshare: Here one can find topic related content in the form of presentations and videos form people all over the world.
• Youtube: Don't you know it already? :P

2) Edpuzzle: Make any video your lesson! that says it all. This is a very effective tool for making videos interactive so you can be sure that your students are engaging with your online video content. It also allows you to track all your students progress and activity and much more.. don't believe me? check out this video 

3)  Padlet: This is an amazing tool to create and Collaborate. To understand what I mean click here. Padlet allows us to create a Bulletin board, Blog, Portfolio, Block diagrams and much more..  Here is a quick introductory video.

4) Polleverywhere: This tool lets you engage your audience or class in real time. One can easily start a conversation with everyone. simply put you ask the audience a question, then watch as the charts update automatically with their responses. Everything happens at the finger tips but a possible drawback for a classroom environment is that it requires the use of mobile phones or access to internet in class.    

Well they say all good things must come to an end but not here. I believe learning never ends so be assured I will be updating this blog post as I master some more tools.

Thank you for reading and hoping to enrich my knowledge with your experiences, so feel free to comment below and let me know what worked for you.


P.S. I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to our instructors Prof. Dr Vasudha Kamat and Ms. Manali Joshi for empowering us to take on the challenges of teaching in this 21st century using these effective ICT tools and SNDT Women's University Mumbai for creating such lovely content in the form of guides and Videos.