Response to "Flipped Classrooms"

The article that I decided to read was one about flipping classrooms.  The method is that instead of learning in the classroom and doing homework outside, the class is conducted through videos and online materials for the students to watch at home and they come to class to clarify and discuss.  The article points describes how it works, without going into too much mundane details.  It also does not incorporate any statistics about how this method works.  I imagine that this method is still pretty alien to most teachers and isn't something that one can just do.  It takes a tech savvy person and someone who is willing to change their whole lesson plan to work around it.

The article has another aspect that is intriguing to me.  It talks about how parents can support a flipped classroom and how it can be beneficial to both the student and parent.  Since all the material is found online, both students and parents can access it and watch , rewind, and pause to learn more.  Now parents can be apart of the learning process right next to their children.  Many parents are and can be reluctant to help their children because they don't know what they are learning and probably don't remember the course material off the top of their head.  Being able to watch videos and have all needed text at their fingertips, students will be able to take time with material rather than having to cram it all in in a short 1 hour session.  This can be a good or bad thing because it creates responsibility in students.  Not all students are interested in learning and if we tell ourselves that they are, we are lying to ourselves.  In order to do well and actually learn, students will have to use their own time and use it wisely to fulfill the requirements of the flipped classroom.  I think that some sort of accountability measure should be in place to ensure that students watch and do the lessons.

I think that this is a great idea, but is going to be a tough sell to whole school districts.  And the logistics seems pretty crazy when you really look at it.  It seems that the education pendulum is swinging towards a less homework scenario, yet flipped classrooms are homework of lessons, so they are kind of mandatory.  This may be okay with 1 or 2 classes, but if you have the whole school using this method, the amount of material that has to be covered out of class will be astronomical and require a lot of time.  I am not saying that students shouldn't have to do homework, I just imagine that past a certain point, students wont do it.  Every student will have their breaking point and some are more interested in learning than others.  I think that flipped classrooms will allow the students who want to excel to excel while the ones who don't care will continue not to care and not do work.  But that is the big problem with education today; how to motivate students to want to learn.  I think that it is good to set a goal to motivate all students to learn, but a goal that is unobtainable.  We want everyone to be smart and productive members of society.  That is  a good start i think.  That is why I think flipped classrooms will be a good idea, but only for those who want to learn.  Why should teachers worry about the unmotivated and non caring population of students(which seems awfully high nowadays)?  There is a quote that I always liked even though it is a bit brash; The world needs plenty of bartenders.  This is true and a bit depressing.  When does teaching students become about motivating the uncaring and not the wanting learners?  Maybe flipped classrooms will help excel students who value learning.  Does the world need everyone to be a Doctor? No, because then we would still need bartenders.