Guide on the Side: Flipping the Classroom

A teacher’s value is not in the information stored in their head, but rather their ability to pull together the best learning resources to produce a desired outcome.

The modern teacher is (or should be) more an aggregator of resources than a producer of information, at least in the classroom. Why are thousands of teachers all reinventing the wheel by creating individual lectures on the exact same topic when someone else has already produced an excellent video on it? A faculty member’s real added value is in their interaction with students. The back and forth with students in discussion, the monitoring of their disciplinary understanding, or commentary on their assignments to improve their writing in the discipline, for example, is what gives the most value. Faculty should focus on this aspect of their teaching and automate as much as possible the content delivery part.

Think of videos as a way to bring the best learning resources to your students. The flipped classroom method, for example, has students watch short videos of concepts at home and come to class the next day prepared with questions, and sometimes having completed a post-video quiz. This method can grab students’ attention and give class time back for student collaboration and beneficial conversations about the new lesson.