Flipped Classrooms
This weeks blog is about a website that my wife showed me, www.khanacademy.org. It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. I’m already using it to help me with my statistics work, and I’m showing it to every student who comes to my office expressing difficulty with math. If you get a chance to watch Salman Khan discussing the website on www.ted.com, do so, because it’s amazing.
Perhaps the most innovative part is the concept of “taking negative feelings” out of the learning process. What Khan means by that is the hesitancy of students to ask questions in class, lest they feel stupid, or feel like they are incapable of understanding. One cannot, for example, pause or rewind an instructor in the middle of a lecture, but they can do so with a video recorded lecture as often as they want to.
What does this have to do with higher education finance? Well, currently, not much. But if we peer into the future a bit, could this potentially create a situation where institutions (both higher and lower education) cut costs by eliminating faculty and simply have students watch videos of material and come in for the occasional tutorial and test of their knowledge? Could it lead to a situation where campuses have much less need for the “brick and mortar” of an institution and go fully toward a future where technology is the teacher and the rest of us are merely administrative assistants?
If students are able to get virtually all the content they need from internet videos and teachers in the classroom merely moderate problem solving sessions, what will it mean in the future to be a teacher? It’s exciting and scary at the same time.
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