A great portion of my last three weeks has been spent
traveling. First to snowy Virginia, then
(thankfully!) to the blissful beaches of Jekyll Island, Georgia. I must say I definitely preferred the latter
to the former! Each trip was focused on
professional development and increasing my proficiency as an educator. Both conferences were filled with new
knowledge, and I did return home tired yet energized with new ideas.
All this travel did distract me somewhat from my goals of
gaining better technology and distance education proficiency. However, I finally hunkered down to begin
improving my knowledge of a technology that has remained elusive and
intimidating: Prezi. Yes, I am a
PowerPoint kind of girl. It is familiar
and comfortable, and once my lovely instructional designer taught me all about
using the MIX add-in, I’ve rocked the narrated PowerPoint through creating MP4’s
and YouTubes. Students have loved having
online lectures in a variety of formats, and converting a plain-Jane presentation
into a YouTube has become second-nature.
But……YouTube videos don’t play so easy in PowerPoint. And I was getting frustrated with having to
leave the presentation to go to the video, and vice versa. So finally, I bit the bullet and spent most
of the last week playing around in Prezi, reading tutorials, and watching the
Prezi help videos. All of this was done
to not just increase my technology competence but to also help in preparation
for a flipped classroom.
This was the week I would give up control, leave the
lectern, and step out into creative chaos as my students applied knowledge to
practice. The topic was Teamwork and
Collaboration, with a focus on communication about patients to increase safety
and healthcare quality. I created a
teaching plan, designed out-of-class activities, crafted patient scenarios for
application through problem-based learning, and produced a not-so-bad Prezi. For each module, students are provided an
overview that includes required readings and pre-class activities. For this module, I sent out the overview
several days early and let them know it would be a flipped classroom approach,
hopefully to encourage them to complete the pre-class activities BEFORE coming
to class.
Finally, the week arrives, and two days before class I post
a request for volunteers for an activity.
No response. The day before
class, I send word to the skills lab that I still need volunteers for an
activity. No response. So I arrive early the day of class so I can
catch students before the first class of the day, and eventually get four
reluctant volunteers. Class time
arrives, the Prezi loads, and the seats are filled. I dive in with a question posed to the class
based on some of the brief (and by brief I do mean brief- the longest video was
less than 2 minutes) video scenarios on communication. There is total silence, blank faces, and a
sinking feeling in my stomach as I realize that it is highly likely no one read
a word or watched a single video. But
being an optimistic kind of person, I move on to another question. Now there might be total silence, except
there is the noise from shifting students and they are realizing that they know
no one is prepared, and it is becoming obvious that I know no one is
prepared. It might have been a tad bit
awkward.
Fortunately, I did not give in to the urge to retreat to the
lectern and begin a lecture. At the
Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy this year, Peter Doolittle (of Virginia
Tech) delivered an amazing pre-conference session on the flipped classroom. He posed the question of what one should do
if you have flipped, but the students arrive unprepared. Instinctively you will want to revert to
lecture; however, Peter advised against this, instead stating it is necessary
to carry on with the original teaching plan.
So rather than running for cover as I wanted, instead I pressed on with
the flipped plan. I presented my few
Prezi frames designed to prompt and guide discussion rather than impart
content. My four volunteers were invited
to the front of the room, and quickly the classroom realized what the role play
was designed to demonstrate (horrible nurse-nurse communication). After the first activity, we moved on to case
studies designed to allow the students to apply knowledge to the use of
communication models. This activity
required some teams to role play, and some teams to provide critique of the
communication. Finally, one group led
the class in debriefing of the entire class session.
While I wish I could say that it was a perfect flipped
example, instead I have to admit it was almost a flop. Looking back, I know that it would have been
preferable to give the students some face-to-face anticipatory guidance to
prepare for the experience. If I were
flipping every class session, I’d likely follow Peter’s advice to possibly
administer a brief, low-value quiz at the start of each session to encourage
pre-class preparation. There are other
tweaks I’d need to do to each of the in-class activities, with some of the
changes based on what students shared during debriefing. It wasn’t a perfect flipped experience, but
it went well enough to encourage me to continue to press on.
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