Flipped

I read a blog article by Joyce Kasman Valenza on VOYA:

http://www.voya.com/2012/09/21/tag-team-tech-october-2012/

The article, titled "The Flipping Librarian," serves as a good introduction to the concept of "flipped classrooms and libraries" as well as resources of information and technology necessary for the implementation of this concept. (Of course, teachers, especially English and History teacher, have been using non-hightech ways to flip their lesson for a long time. They front load the content by assigning readings.)

The concept of a flipped classroom was not foreign to me. I have previously adopted it in teaching Mandarin to adults and home-schooled students. I uploaded my slides and recorded the lesson on VoiceThread, where my students could also easily record and add verbal and textual answers to my mid-lesson questions. We then used class time for group activities and pronunciation corrections.

The "flipped library" was a rather new idea to me, however,  I could see it working quite naturally in school libraries. A video guide introducing students to new databases could be viewed at home, and then in classes, students would form groups and work on search challenges. Groups would present their findings and describe how they used the databases. Practice activities, group discussions and presentations would work as interactive tactics for reinforcing and integrating the newly obtained information.

However, even in the well-to-do school district where I work, there is still a significant difference between the haves and have-nots in terms of technology resources at home. With the implementation of flipped classrooms and libraries, it is even more important to make sure we are sensitive to the digital divide. Our library offers over-night laptop checkouts for students who need them. If we encourage  teachers to try flipping lesson, which I think quite a few teachers would come abroad right away, I am afraid we will not have enough laptops for all of the students in need.