Flipped classroom

One man.  One computer.  Millions of students.

Perhaps you have heard of Salman Khan, the creator of the wildly popular Khan Academy. The mission is to provide a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere.  The site began as a series of online tutoring sessions for his niece using Yahoo’s Doodle Notepad; now it attracts millions of viewers a month and consistently receives rave reviews from the students who use it.  It is a testament to the tremendous power of leveraging technology to provide a free education for anyone who has access to the Internet.

For me, what is most intriguing about Salman Khan’s mission is a revolutionary idea that could transform the entire landscape of education; it’s called the “flipped classroom”.  Following is an excerpt from a Forbes magazine article dated Nov. 19, 2012, which describes the nature of a flipped classroom:

“The idea is that students watch lectures and work through problem sets on their own time, at their own pace.  Once they prove mastery of a concept, adaptive software will suggest new ones, much like Amazon recommends books.  Teachers are kept abreast of students’ progress through back-end dashboards.  Class time once reserved for lectures would be devoted to mentoring and one-on-one tutoring.”

While many talk about the need for education “reform”, I believe it’s concepts like this that will ultimately “transform” education.

Below is a brief video, which by the way is animated for your viewing pleasure, which uniquely describes the nature of a flipped classroom.

After watching the video, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this concept.  Please use the space below to share your thoughts.