The backwards flip

I've heard a lot about flipping the classroom over recent months and everything I've heard and read has been interesting. As an IT teacher I've been able to reflect on flipping the classroom too, and I realize that I have done this, however I've done it in reverse.

Picture the situation 3 years ago. Students came to the IT lab, logged onto their network accounts and worked on something that would support their units of inquiry. Everything the students did was stored in their folders on the school server. They couldn't get to this work from home, so couldn't share it with anyone outside of school.  The only place they could create was at school and in the IT lab.

Fast forward. Students still come to the computer lab ... sometimes. Sometimes I also go to their classrooms. We don't create very much in school, but I show the students a lot and let them play and discover things for themselves. Everything we do is Web 2.0. Nothing is stored at school. The students go home, having explored and played around and taught themselves and others how to use the various tools and they create at home (or anywhere else) to show their understanding of the concepts they have been learning about in school.  They post their work onto their own blogs, or maybe onto a class blog.  They share this work with the entire world.

For me, "backwards flipping" the classroom has also been a way of empowering the students.

Photo Credit:  Laurie flipping out by Jared Tarbell, 2010