Summary
As the title suggests, Springen reviews the advantages and challenges of the flipped classroom, citing numerous professionals in the fields of education, technology, and librarianship. Springen collects points of view from some of the original proponents of the flipped classroom, as well as those who are slightly critical of the approach. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a flipped lesson is when students view content at home, usually in the form of lecture videos, so they can view at their own pace. Then the class time that might have been used for lecture in a traditional lesson is instead used for in-depth class discussions, individual practice with teacher guidance, or small group projects. As Springen notes, proponents of the approach laud it for its time-saving aspects as well as the fact that it allows some students to stop and rewind the videos as needed. Some critics caution that relying on video as a way to deliver content material can hurt the students with limited access. Springen relates this all to the world of the library by talking to experts who feel that it is the librarian's duty to help aleviate access issues by providing computer time and recorded videos on flashdrives, if need be, and to help teachers and students find the best videos for their information needs.
Source
I was pleased to see that even though I can't view the entire issue online for free, SLJ still allows accesss to the full article for this cover story. I also appreciate that it is easy to read and Springen included links to all of her research and the websites of her expert sources. I'll be adding many of these links to my own diigo.
Content
Springen appears to present an unbiased treatment of this issue, and it has given me several things to think about as a current classroom teacher and future librarian. I only heard of the flipped classroom last semester at a BER technology conference I attended. I was very excited about the idea and asked my fellow faculty members how/if they flipped any of their own lessons. As far as I know, only one other teacher does very much "flipping" in this sense. As I started to brainstorm some ideas for flipped lessons, I started to doubt myself and how good this would be for my students because of access issues. Even if they all had computer/internet access, there truly are times when some things just don't work, so I worried that I would actually waste time rather than save it because I would have to deliver lecture in class anyway. I see that I'm not the only one who has concerns about equitable access, and I like Springen's suggestion via David L. Loertscher that librarians can alleviate some of these issues by providing computer access. As to his suggestion that the librarians can put the videos on flashdrives, however, I felt like that was a bit impractical. But if it works every once in a while for some students, great! Loertscher also said:
"'The job of the librarian is to flip for every kid...If one little tutorial doesn’t work, we’ve got 10 others in the wings. There are all kinds of learners, all styles of learners.' To find the best materials, librarians should 'use the same criteria they’ve always used for printed materials—authority, interest, accuracy,' he says. They shouldn’t just fall in love with the latest trend."
This quote really put things in place for me. As sad as it is, I never really thought of our librarian as someone who could do this for me, but I know that as a future librarian it will be something I suggest to other teachers. Of course it will take a lot of collaboration and communication, but it is a perfect example of how a librarian can support teachers in creating the best lessons for each kid.
Overall, I thought that Springen's coverage of the topic was very fair. I was glad that she presented the obstacles as well as the benefits because every teacher should pause to be sure that the lessons are right for them and their students and not just jump on the bandwagon.
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