The review of "Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer" written by John Graney

I would like to review the article named Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer written by John Graney. Teachers are bound to be frustrated when the teaching material or instruction they prepared do not work well. The author of this article suggests that teachers bring students assignment into the ‘flipped’ classroom and their instruction parts move out of the classroom to help learners engage in more cognitively demanding activities with the teacher present. The frustrated student, the confused learner, the student in danger of tuning out gets attention and support when they need it (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). Like all good homework assignments, these activities still challenge students to use what they have learned. 

The author of this article argues that teachers can break a flipped classroom lesson into three parts: work at home, work in class, work after class. In exemplified lesson, it is intriguing that teachers insert a quiz into the video which students are supposed to watch at home. Then the teacher sets up activities and prepare some needed materials.

According to the author, what happens in the flipped classroom revolves around the learners' needs. The activities help learners elicit the misunderstandings and take the students deeper into the subject. In addition, the author refer that by moving instruction outside of class, learners gain control over their learning. Students who cannot follow or understand the teacher’s instruction are able to review again and again until they understand well. They can use Internet and freely find more required information.

As video are closely related to the flipped classroom, the author also introduces some way of choosing video materials for class. First of all, as the flipped classroom becomes more popular, better instructional videos should become available, such as finding an Existing Video in YouTube or TED-ED. Creating a Video also can be a good way to use video material for class. With regard to other nonvideo Options, the author advises that the videos are the important part of flipping, but teachers can use a variety of resources for the initial exploration of a topic.

In conclusion, teachers can encourage their learners find their answer, changing the methods of teaching, so-called ‘in flipped classroom’. And they are also responsible for explaining the instructions well and making their learners get involved to their class. 

Has “the future” started, indeed?

-reviewing the video clip <The Future Starts Now- 2012 edition (4:40)>

This video clip made me think about using ICT in my future classroom. We have so many cool gadgets nowadays, like iPads, Smartphones etc. The use of these gadgets is abbreviated ICT, which means information and communication in technology. Many people believe that children can learn much better through ICT, but many local authorities struggle to provide our students with these tools. The problem is not that hardware because schools are full of it. The real problem is how to use ICT smartly to improve learning.

In Norwegians’ perspectives, after the oil, people will live off Knowledge. This means that more of use will have to get a good education. If we agree to society benefits from improved learning, how do we reach this goal? Back to gadgets, it would be smart to take advantage of using ICT. Computers can teach us to learn things in different ways and they also make learning advanced concepts easier if that's what you want. For example, instead of reading about DNA molecules and cramming in facts you can't really understand. Then we can visualize, simulate and animate them using ICT. All the information all over the world can be learned at our finger tips.

ICT is a part of curriculum as the basic skills But the curriculum itself is no guarantee because nothing happens if you don't follow it accurately. Therefore it is more important to get actual teachers into the idea of using ICT in their lessons. Increase of using ICT and teacher training can encourage teachers to use ICT in their own lessons.

However, it is more or less premature to paint a rosy outlook on using ICT. In terms of IT devices used in classroom, schools have to spend a lot of money to prepare them for all students’ use. Moreover, according to devices, they are considered to be care regularly with upgrading their own system or maintain its servers to keep a certain degree of quality. In addition, the teachers’ education about ICT would be needed. Bit most important thing is to find and develop ‘appropriate educational contents’ inside the sea of information. Has “the future” started, indeed?

You can learn more about ICT with this YouTube Video clip!

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Welcome but somewhat scary Social Media Revolution!

-reviewing the video clip <Social Media Revolution 2011 (2:35)>

This video clip not only let me know about very interesting information about social media but also feel even scary about big power of social media. 

Social Media is about people. Over 50% of the world population is under 30 years old. Social media even impact our offline behavior. Kindergartens are learning on iPads, not chalkboards. In addition, tf Facebook were a country, it would be the world's 3rd largest. But in China, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google are prohibited. IF Wikipedia were made into a book, it would be 2.25 million pages long. and would take you over 123 years to read. Some universities have stopped distributing e-mail accounts. E-Readers have surpassed traditional book sales. Movie-goers buy only 2.5billion in real goods. 93% of marketers use social media for business. How amazing it is!

The most impressive sentence in this video clip is that commented by Erik Qualman: We don't have a choice on whether we do social media. The question is how well we do it.

Most of things are alternated by social media. It is a matter of course that all traditional ways of communication, advertisement, marketing and so one are changing now. And its speed is beyond our imagination!

Social media also has huge influence on English education and is changing our field. The thing is that we need to realize social media’s frighteningly huge influence on us and adapt this environment.

               "Change is bound to be scary to 
        only who don’t want to be changed."