In Singapore, passengers of our bus services are allowed to stand and one particular bus service has standing room in the front half of its buses while the seats are located in the rear half. During peak hours, these buses will encounter a jam within the buses as passengers who are standing will clog the front end of the buses and make it difficult for others to board the buses as the entrances are usually located at the front of the buses. The rear half where the seats are mainly located but with grip poles for standing passengers would have no passenger standing. This has led to the drivers having to remind (yell at?) the standing passengers to move to the rear of the bus, usually to little avail. Alighting from the bus is also made difficult as the exit is near the middle of the bus. In my view, the bus services should have just “flipped” the design of the bus and place all the seats in the front half and the standing area at the rear half. Passengers boarding the buses at the front will more naturally move to the rear that is designed for standing only as it leaves them with little option and the appearance of space at the rear will invite them there.

A similar thing can be done to schools. Schools too can be flipped. The flipping here involves the re-thinking on how instruction is done and also the change in emphasis on the collaboration between teachers and students, and also between students and students. A flipped classroom according to Jerry Overmyer is:

“…. a model of teaching in which a student’s homework is the traditional lecture viewed outside of class on a vodcast. Then class time is spent on inquiry-based learning which would include what would traditionally be viewed as a student’s homework assignment. Synonymous with Reverse Classroom.”

Whether it is inquiry-based learning or more traditional classwork is not very important to me. What is important is that the students get more time to work with the teachers and their peers in the classroom, rather than sit passively listening to lectures.

This flip model is made possible with the advances made in ICT. Lectures can be podcasted or “vodcasted“. Recordings of lectures can be done easily and the availability of free online platforms like Moodle to host these online. Email and IM software allows for additional support to be given.

Of course, doing all these is not new. Even in Singapore, it is done by schools. However it is done on an ad hoc basis rather than it becoming central to the delivery of the curriculum. Schools have adopted it as part of the “Teach Less, Learn More” approach. But has never been the main means of curriculum delivery. It is all too often just to pander to “Teach Less, Learn More” where perhaps one week of lessons (out of a possible forty weeks) is transferred online.

A school in the US, Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, has taken to flipping in earnest and is ripping the advantages of flipping. The advantages of the model are many but two stands out. As Technology with Intention states:

• Flipped teaching means that an educator doesn’t need to guess at what speed to deliver content – with students watching lectures at home they can move at their own speed and review concepts as necessary.
• Without large portions of classroom time spent lecturing, educators can use that time to see students working through projects and assignments that would have previously been done in isolation at home:  break out sessions can occur spontaneously, students can work in mentor-based groupings, jigsaw opportunities, supplemental support, etc.

From the Singapore viewpoint, it can also help address the problem of excessive private tuition that many of its students attend to seek additional assistance. It may also mean a cutting back on the amount of homework. Furthermore, the flexible and more social arrangement inherent will also better reflect a 21st century workplace.

Of course, there are some who will think that such flipping can only benefit the brighter students. What do you think?

Many teachers come into the profession with great ideals about what it means to be a teacher. While many find great satisfaction being in the line, many emerge from the trenches of teaching in schools, shell shocked or even mortally wounded.

Teaching in schools has all too often been reduced largely to getting students to jump over academic hoops which get higher each year. In addition to these academic hoops, teachers are expected to meet the commercialized expectations of principals and parents. Many teachers soon find that much of the ideals of the teaching profession have become subordinated to the commercial KPIs set by school principals and parents who have been fed the idea that education is mainly about getting stellar academic results.

The mad chase after these KPIs have resulted in stressed out teachers, students and parents. In Singapore, there is a rising number of students who have been diagnosed with mental problems with the emphasis in doing well in high stakes school examinations being the number one cause of these problems. Many still have chosen to opt out by their “unconscious yet voluntary’ non-participation in these academic activities through missing school or being simply “disruptive” or “not putting in the effort”. Yet, we all believe that education should make us better.

If education is truly to be a better experience for all of us, then perhaps education should be repositioned as being part of the wellness movement where all who are connected with it, will be in the best of spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health. The teacher’s position is redefined as someone who makes everyone he or she comes into contact with, healthy. The teachers nourishes all “the sick”, back to health and grows the already “well” to become even healthier in mind, body and spirit. In doing so, the teacher, stays well too rather than become broken or maimed. This is simply because what is done will be more consistent with the ideals of being a teacher rather than just being the producer of economic units that the teacher is generally regarded as today.

With the arrival of Windows 7, there is a rush to buy the new operating system from Bill Gates’ Microsoft. I know, I know. It is supposed to be pretty good this time round as compared to Windows Vista. But I still won’t jump on the Windows 7 bandwagon as I still have my trusty, and very safe if I may add, Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Switching to Ubuntu has meant that I have saved a lot of money. I save money not just from not having to pay for an operating system but also for all the applications that I need to get any work done. I don’t have to cough up a bundle or use illegal software to penny-pinch. I still get my usual Office suite for the usual computer-related office tasks. I still get to surf the Net, email, chat and tweet. I also get to do serious photo editing without having to buy Photoshop. I get to do all these legally without paying a cent and a lot less fear of virus attacks!

Today, schools should seriously consider going this route. I have written about this before but with the rise of cloud computing schools should even more seriously go the free route in their quest for ICT use in education. There are lots of free apps available to the teacher.

Schools that face serious budget constraints can go the Open Source route that I have done and turn to cloud computing and other web-based apps for teaching and learning. Even if you use a proprietary system like Windows or Apple’s Macintosh, free apps can be found to not only allow you to do the usual word processing and spreadsheet work but also more sophisticated learning platforms, the latest of which and much on people’s minds (mine too) is Google Wave. All you need is Web connectivity and that shouldn’t be a problem for you or you wouldn’t be reading this.

Cloud computing also means that schools will not have to purchase Office suites too. Sophisticated learning platforms can be had for free. All you need is just server space which is not very expensive. Give it a shot and if you really have no idea where to begin to get your free apps fixes, I recommend that you visit ZaidLearn. Zaid‘s crazy about free software and he has been most helpful in compiling them all on his blog. Take a look at it and you will find yourself all the happier from it.