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Flipped learning: A response to five common criticisms

We cannot continue on the current path of education if we want to prepare our children for their future. Our children will not live in the world that we grew up in. We need to prepare them to be flexible, critical thinking, problem solvers.

creativity is one of the important 4 C’s (Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity) that make up part of the foundation of a 21st century education. The remaining foundation is of course another C (Significant Content).

One thing we have learned in the last 20 years is that many young people — certainly most teens– are pretty savvy about how they use the Net, though all of us can use some reminders now and then.

And parents — even those who may be technologically challenged — continue to have a crucial role to play in guiding their children and helping them sort out and deal with the stresses of life, both online and offline.

A better strategy would be to teach children to be “street smart” in order to better safeguard themselves in any potentially uncomfortable or dangerous situation.

 The Partnership for 21st century skills (2011) identifies these specifically: creativity, collaboration, critical-thinking, and communication.

Some questions to consider before embarking on your journey to personalize learning: Why do you want to personalize learning for your learners? What problems or needs have you identified in your school, organization and/or community? What data can you show that demonstrates the need to personalize learning? What does teaching and learning look like now? What are stakeholders beliefs about learning and change? Why is it critical for your organization and/or community to change now? What challenges or obstacles do you envision as you move to personalizing learning? What do you envision for your personalized learning environment?

I like "Deeper Learning" as a way to convey both the acquisition of knowledge and the transference/application of knowledge along with developing skills employers find valuable -- collaboration, communications and critical thinking.

Today's educators need to be connected -- that means they need to embrace social media along with utilizing online resources -- designing ways to integrate smart phones and iPads, along with laptops.

...the choices we make about how to use time in school are often the enemy of quality or value. Our patterns in leading classrooms are so ingrained that we do not even realize when we are making poor choices."