Flipped, Blended with a side of confusion

I’m not going to try and define ‘flipped classrooms’ or attempt to distinguish them from ‘blended learning’. I don’t promote myself in this area, and to me using media well is just a good idea. It’s only when this stuff is backgrounded by the functional literacy culture that educators have used for decades that ‘rich media’ becomes some sort of new whizbang thing.

By now, most coursework in contemporary education should be taking advantage of the deep feature set that is “the web” and software that runs though the Internet layers and applications. For example, don’t upload a .doc or add it as an attachment when students can use gmail+drive+kaizena to author a draft, share it when they want to whom they want — and then that person gives them audio and text feedback inline with the document. The teacher and student are flipping and blending the feedback loop in new ways, using a free tool and one free extension. There’s nothing confusing about this, it’s just better design.

Rich media is any medium between the parties that creates meaning. It does not mean HD video or fancy production. What really matters is how well one person can show another person how to optimise their work flows — without feeling like they broke some unspoken rule. Students and teachers benefit most from better workflows — which is not to be confused with system needs or commercial needs. Remember kids, EdTech’s just like K-Mart with less signs and an infinite isle of products.

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