by Joyce Schwarz, blogging at Hollywood2020.net about the future of media, training and technology, email: joyceschwarz(at)gmail.com)
"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
John Dewey
Is it real or is it REEL? That's one of my favorite questions about life! No, not that we are living in the Matrix but that the inclusion of video and film in our lives is crucial to our perception of the world around us in a 360 view.
That's why I wasn't surprised to hear that a company called Echo360 has just attracted $31 million investment from Ted Leonsis and Steve Case Revolution Growth fund ($450M). According to reports in the Washington Post and other sources, Echo360 already has 1 million students covered under it's current contracts with universities, colleges and other higher education institutions. What do they do -- they make software that converts college classroom lectures into a digital format that students can watch on their computers and mobile devices.
FLIPPING THE CLASSROOM:
And it all ties in with the latest trend that will fascinate teachers and trainers throughout this summer and beyond into fall and maybe even forever on -- that trend is called FLIPPING THE CLASSROOM which ties in with something I've talked about before called the EPLEX 360 -- where edu-tainment is a big part of our lives and not just left to the kids or the peeps going back to recareer or re-train at colleges!
New to the concept of FLIPPING THE CLASSROOM? Well, I've been watching it for about a year now but wasn't surprised to see the roots of what Wikipedia calls "Flip Teaching" . Wikipedia goes back to an earlier from of this 'flipping' called blended teaching or instruction -- tying in ed-tech (educational technology -internet, film, video etc) with traditional teaching/learning methods.
BUT the real exciting stuff is going WAY beyond that -- don't take my word for it -- look at these resources:
FLIP THE CLASSROOM links -- from the Economist, USA TODAY, TED Conference and especially GEORGE LUCAS blogging at HUFFPO:
Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education | Video on TED ... |
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www.thedailyriff.com/.../how-the-flipped-classroom-is-radically-... Apr 15, 2012 – When we did this YouTube was just getting started and the world of online video was just in its infancy. Flipping the classroom has transformed ... 20:27► 20:27 |
www.ted.com/.../salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_rei...
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Flipped Classrooms Promote Personalization in Higher Education
The Atlantic - 1 day ago
Many college educators are embracing and exploring the flipped classroom, too--especially as educational technologies evolve to make the flip ...
GEORGE LUCAS on FLIPPING AND VIDEO & MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lucas/education-the-
Sal Khan's 'Academy' sparks a tech revolution in education USA TODAY - 1 day ago Last year, a number of schools began "flipping AND THEN I NOTICED THIS ARTICLE -- which seemed to tie in with a discussion in one of the courses I'm teaching on SELF- EXPRESSION |
Why Flip The Classroom When We Can Make It Do Cartwheels?
Co.Exist - May 9, 2012
We all know what a traditional college classroom looks like: students in rows stare glassy-eyed at the professor who drones on, paying more attention to the ...
BURNING MAN & BEYOND:
Only yesterday was I prompted by a discussion of the impact that attending BURNING MAN can have on a person's life -- did I go to wikipedia.com and look up BURNING MAN'S PRINCIPLES (scroll down to the middle of this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man )
did I see the mention of EXTREME SELF-REALIZATION and EXTREME SELF-EXPRESSION...
We're all Screenagers -- weaned on Sesame Street, raise don MTV but leaning forward for something more!
WHAT IF YOU COULD FLIP YOUR LIFE -- what if creativity could come first? Well a teacher from Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, Shelly Wright has a blog post that is reprinted in the influential KQED blog MIND/Shift -- how we learn. Her post says you could at least start in the classroom by flipping one of the most influential sacred cows upside down -- She says, "Here’s what I propose: we flip Bloom’s taxonomy. Rather than starting with knowledge, we start with creating, and eventually discern the knowledge that we need from it." http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/05/flip-this-blooms-taxonomy-should-start-with-creating/
BUT what if we could go further-- whoever's gone to BURNING MAN or TED or SXSW knows that it's the immersion into the creative potpourri that is what it's about. Sure some of my panelists at Digital Hollywood and other conferences would prefer to just give product demos and sales pitches but that just doesn't cut it anymore. If I hear one more time about the value of the "PROCESS" I'll scream that " I AM MAD AS HELL AND CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE"
When I've gone into a traditional classroom (college or high school or grade school) I take every camera I have with me - video cam, mobile with camera etc -- and I set up a challenge for the students like -- create an audition video for SURVIVOR (CBS SHOW) in 60 minute or even 30 if time is short. The subject that I'm teaching doesn't matter-- I can work back from the video and talk about everything from LIFE SKILLS to communication to media to science.
REEL WITH REAL
Yes, you can outwit, outplay and out last the others by combining real with reel!
About Joyce Schwarz -- Joyce is one of the female pioneers in Digital Media who wrote many of the first articles on multimedia and the Internet. She conducted the first classes about the potential of the Internet and digital video for the California Film Commission, the DGA, WGA and Women in Film and she was Chair and organizer for the Paris France Internet/ ITC conference 1995 to 1997. She combines a background in journalism, magazine writing, advertising, community outreach and film production with her emerging media skills and speaks frequently on the FUTURE OF MEDIA & COMMUNICATION and has written more than 200 articles and 6 books published by mainstream publishers. You can see more about her at:
www.linkedin.com/in/joyceschwarz