Having only recently learned about flipped learning, I can see how tools like social annotation and platforms such as Hypothesis can be powerful during students' self-regulated learning time. These tools allow learners to interact with the text, reflect, and share insights at their own pace. Then, during class time, the teacher can guide a discussion based on those annotations, engaging an audience that is already actively connected to the topic.

great quote

How can social annotation practices take advantage of these sorts of active learning processes? What might be done in a flipped classroom setting to get students to use social annotation on a text prior to a lecture and have the questions and ideas from these sessions brought into the lecture space for discussion, argument, and expansion?

Active learning is a pedagogical structure whereby a teacher presents a problem to a group of students and has them (usually in smaller groups) collectively work on the solutions together. By talking and arguing amongst themselves they actively learn together not only how to approach problems, but to come up with their own solutions. Teachers can then show the correct answer, discuss why it was right and explain how the alternate approaches may have gone wrong. Research indicates that this approach helps provide a deeper understanding of the materials presented this way, that students score higher on exams and are less likely to either fail or drop out of these courses.

Active learning sounds very similar to the sorts of approaches found in flipped classrooms. Is the overlap between the two approaches the same, or are there parts of the Venn diagrams of the two that differ, and, if so, how do they differ? Which portions are more beneficial?

Does this sort of active learning approach also help to guard against "group think" as the result of comparing solutions from various groups? How might this be applied to democracy? Would separate versions of committees that then convene to compare notes and come up with solutions improve the quality of solutions?

This article discussing using the flipped classroom using accessible technology and expand learning activities. The authors point out that the use of technology must be based on training provided to teachers to implement the technology in the classroom.

RATING: 8/10

Sounds like something interesting for Dr. Jeremy Dean.

Besides the piece’s content, the interactions which happened through a layer of Diigo annotations were quite interesting.

Might want to add yet another layer to this old discussion.

Some connection with SAMR, unbundling, “open learning”… With diverse learners whose constraints may affect institutions, there’s a fair bit of talk about new(ish) tech-infused approaches to distance education. As with many other things, not much of it is new. But there might be some enabling phenomena. Not sure how gamification fits, here. Sure, open play could allow for a lot of flexibility. But gamification is pretty much the reverse: game mechanics without the open-ended playfulness.