Differentiation Through Technology: The Example of the Flipped Classroom by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa. June 2020

1. Differentiation Through Technology:
The example of the Flipped Classroom
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.
info@conexiones.com.ec

2. Big questions:
1. What is the purpose of education?
• To socialize?
• To emancipate?
• Both?
2. Is it my obligation to differentiate to meet the
needs of all learners in my class? Is it even
possible?
3. Is it better to teach “wide” or “deep”? (WHY?)
4. Should we be teaching…
• …“content” or “to the test”?
• …thinking skills?
• …LLLL: Life-long lovers of learning (aprender a aprender)?
• …ALL? (HOW?)

3. Your job description just changed…
• Ian Jukes: “Do we need teachers if we have
Google?”
• Sugata Mitra:
• “Groups of students can learn basic education
on their own.”
• Ex.: Can Tamil-speaking 12-years-olds in South India
teach themselves biotechnology in English? (To
show we need teachers for certain things). Two-
months (basics; 30%), two more months (50%)
• Ex: Groups of 6-12 year-olds can self-instruct,
irrespective of language, socio-economic status,
gender…Entire primary curriculum in 6-9 months.
• Self-organized learning environments better than
kids on their own (regular homework structure).

4. • “A teacher that can be replaced by a
machine, should be.”
“Where there is interest,
there is [self] education.”

5. Competencies
• If teachers only teach “knowledge” without going
deeper, there is no need for the teacher.
Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
“Superficial”; easily Googled
“Why I Flipped
My Classroom”
Where teachers are most
needed

6. Choices
• What should be flipped?
• NOT everything!
• What is the best use of the face-to-
face time?
• There is value and importance to direct,
explicit instruction: But where is its place?
• Hands-on activities?
• Inquiry or problem-based focus?
• Practice?
• Pedagogy first, Technology second
• Technology should support educational
goals, not visa versa.

7. Choices
• Use Bloom as a guide:
• Video, Internet (Web 2.0 applications) instruction is best used
at the “bottom” of Bloom
• But start at the top! Get students interested in the “big ideas”
and use videos to help them fill in their gaps.
Anderson, L. W. & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.) (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York,
NY: Longman.

8. “Flipping” instruction
Based on…
• Jonathan Bergman and Aaron
Sams
• Flip Your Classroom: Reach
every student in every class
every day (2011)
• “Flipped Classroom 101”
• “Flipped Classroom Mastery”
(http://connectedlearningexchange.cisco.com/video/managing-a-flipped-classroom)
“The
Flipped
Classroom”

9. What is the Flipped Classroom?
The Flipped Classroom is…
• A means to an end, not an end in itself. Teachers
still need to plan and set objectives.
• Can be done for a single lesson, not the entire
unit or semester.
• A tool in your toolbox, not a religion.
• Not just a fad…a paradigm shift imperative
based on evidence.

10. Ask one question…
• What’s the best use of face-to-face time?
• Lecturing?
• Helping one, two or small groups of kids?
• Reviewing?
• OR
• Experimenting, using, applying,
hypothesizing…
• Examples:
Use videos to go over the answer sets to
questions.
Core concepts which might need repetition or
which different kids will need different things.
http://virginiaservice.virginia.gov/2016/06/new-national-stem-efforts/excited-girls-using-chemistry-set-together-in-elementary-science-classroom/;
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/designing-a-classroom-game-that-can-get-kids-excited-about-history/248614/;
https://www.varsitytutors.com/blog/3+ways+to+get+elementary+students+excited+about+math

11. Resources…
• Ex.: Khan Academy
• PE: Teach all the rules and the theory via video and then
MOVE in class.
• GapMinder: http://www.gapminder.org/
• Higher Education for Free: http://www.udacity.com/
• Open Culture:
http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

12. What teachers like about the
Flipped Classroom…
• “The Flipped Classroom as a Vehicle to the Future”

13. Student-Teacher Relationships
• Enhances and humanizes the relationships in class.
• Easier to know what each kid needs.

14. What kids like about the flipped
classroom:
• Time to formulate good questions and ask them (via email, podcast,
blogs, or in class).
• Opportunities to do “the hard stuff” with the teacher at your side.
Guarantees individual needs are met.
• Time to pause, repeat, take notes
• Can work faster or slower, depending on your personal needs
• “Don’t have to wait for the rest of the class”
• “Don’t have to try and keep up”
• “Don’t have to listen to the teacher drone on”
• “Cover more in less time”

15. What kids like about the flipped
classroom:
• Mastery learning:
• “Gives students the chance to teach themselves and be more
independent”
• “You really know it, because it’s at your own pace”
• Learn how to learn and why the units are designed as they are
(they build off one another)
• You don’t “move on” until you are ready.
• Helps kids with ADHD, Autism, and other obstacles because they
can re-watch and identify their own learning struggles.

16. If you want to learn more about the Flipped Classroom…
(Questions for the workshop…)
• Does this rely on videos?
• No. Heavily reliant on videos, but can also use audio, readings
from texts, etc. The concept is still the same.
• Does the video have to be the homework?
• No, videos can be watched at school. Re-schedule school time
(allow them in early or later).
• Helps asynchronous learning – everyone can be at different stages.
• Repetition (pausing, rewind, double-time)
• Do I have to make the videos? No, but…
• How do I get started?

17. Conclusions
1. What is the purpose of education?
• To socialize?
• To emancipate?
• Both?
2. Is it my obligation to differentiate to meet the needs of all
learners in my class? Is it even possible? Yes, and yes!
3. Is it better to teach “wide” or “deep”? (WHY?) Deep!
4. Should we be teaching…
• …“content” or “to the test”?
• …thinking skills?
• …LLLL: Life-long lovers of learning (aprender a aprender)?
• …ALL? (HOW?) Tools like the Flipped Classroom

18. Thank you!
• Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D

19. Contact information:
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.
info@conexiones.com.ec
tracey.tokuhama@gmail.com
www.thelearningsciences.com

20. References:
• Flipped Learning Network:
http://flippedlearning.org/openhouse
• The Khan Academy: http://www.khanacademy.org/
• The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange
(MITX) is a non-profit trade association for the digital
marketing and Internet business industry: http://mitx.org/
• Harvard Coursea: https://www.coursera.org/

21. Videos on the Flipped Classroom
• http://flippedlearning1.wordpress.com/archived-webinars/
• Think You Can't Flip Your Humanities Classroom?Think Again!
• The Basics of Flipped Learning
http://connectedlearningexchange.cisco.com/video/flipped-
classroom-101
and
• Flipped-Mastery Learning
http://connectedlearningexchange.cisco.com/video/managing-a-
flipped-classroom
• What Works in a Flipped Classroom
http://www.iste.org/store/product?ID=2285
• Ed Reach: http://edreach.us/flippedlearning/

22. https://www.khanacademy.org/intl/e
s/
• “Khan Academy es una organización con una misión.
Somos una organización sin fines de lucro con el objetivo
de cambiar la educación para mejorar proporcionando
una educación libre y de clase mundial para cualquier
persona en cualquier lugar del mundo.”

23. How the Flipped Classroom can change
the way we teach and how students learn
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.
Instituto de Enseñanza y Aprendizaje, de la
Universidad San Francisco de Quito
6 enero 2013

24. Ask one question…
• What’s the best use of face-to-face time?
• Lecturing?
• Experimenting?
• Reviewing?

25. Traditional vs. Mastery vs. ?
• Balance of video to face-to-face does not have to be 50-
50%
• Use of appropriate technology
• Videos (made with others around the world)
• PPTXs
• (Do not have to be high production or professional videos)

26. Autonomous learners
• Student-centered
• No more “sage on stage”
• Student choices
• Student application (not theorizing)

27. Suitable video uses
• Stop doing large-group lectures: use videos
• (Does not mean no direct instruction)
• Stop defining terms: use videos
• Direct instruction of concepts

28. Videos
• Home made
• Webcam
• Interactive whiteboard
• Capture screen from computers
• Images with topics
• Online video repositories:
• From Khan Academy
• MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
• Following Stanford University’s wild success offering open online
courses in which over 100,000 students registered for each, other
universities began offering their clases as well through Coursera:
University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, University, Stanford
university, the University of Michigan.
• This was followed by MIT’s own launch of MITx, and
• Harvard followed with edX, joined by UC Berkeley, the University f
Texas system, Wellesley College and Georgetwn University.
• The first MOOCs for high school were started in 2012, and the first
Spanish MOOCs began in 2012 as well.

29. Sufficient access
• Is there Internet access?
• Flash drive for computers
• Burn on DVD, put on TV
• iPods
• Telephones
• After- or before-school time

30. Choices
• Use Bloom as a guide:
• Videos are best used at the “bottom” of Bloom
• But start at the top! Get students interested in the “big ideas”
and use videos to help them fill in their gaps.

31. Choices
• Use Bloom as a guide:
• Videos are best used at the “bottom”
of Bloom
• But start at the top! Get students
interested in the “big ideas” and use
videos to help them fill in their gaps.

32. Who should make the videos?
• YouTube
• Khan Academy
• MOOCs
OR:
• Make your own because your students know you!
• Intro by the actual teacher and then support with already-
made videos.
• Q&A set up: Ask the basic questions
• Straightforward lectures, ok, but not the most pedagogical.

33. Format of videos
• Q&A: Interview
• Lecture, content driven
• Followed by classroom context that applies the concepts in a
simulation.
• Put videos at beginning, middle or end of instructional
unit?
• Middle…why?

34. Students working at their own pace
• Universal Design for
Learning
• Inquiry-based learning
• Problem-based learning
• Mastery learning (take
timing out of the equation;
multiple assessments)
• Of units (standards-based?)
• At own pace

35. Typical class: Flexible learning
environment
Centers:
• Some doing computer-based assessments
• Alternative assessments
• Oral
• Some watching videos
• Some doing experiments
• Some group discussion
• Smart Boards for small groups

36. Typical class: Flexible learning
environment
Centers:
• Some doing computer-based assessments
• Alternative assessments
• Oral
• Some watching videos
• Some doing experiments
• Some group discussion
• Smart Boards for small groups

37. Key elements in quality
flipped classrooms:
1. Quality instructional videos
• Keep it short: 5-15 mins. (one objective per video); 100 per
course
• Animate your voice
• Work with a partner
• Add humor
• Don’t waste your students’ time
• Annotations
• Video clips (suggested: Camtasia; Sifa; iPad Apps)
• PIP (Picture in Picture)
• Callouts/Zooms
• Copyright friendly
2. Engaging activities (in class and at home)
3. Robust assessment
• Alternative forms
• Differentiated
• Objective-based
• (Universal Design for Learning)

38. Universal Design for
Learning
• Most people….
• But some need…
• So we should design for ALL
• People who can’t use stairs need ramps,
• But everyone can go up a ramp
• Offer a menu of things that kids can do to get to the
objective:
• Videos, Texts, etc.
• Give kids multiple ways of displaying knowledge of the
learning objectives
• Tests, Videos, Essays, Drama, Write songs

39. Benefits and drawbacks
BENEFITS
• The grades are in the
students’ hands
• Students have to ask
good questions
• Options for students
(learning resources, not
obligatory)
• Students help students
(unconventional
learners)
• Less paperwork to grade
• Oral tests (continually
embedded assessment)
DRAWBACKS
• Community element needs to be
more conscientiously designed
• Small group work (in class and out)
• Must have clear learning objectives
(pre-planning a must)
• Be conduct continual embedded
assessment (clear rubrics)

40. Grading
• Clear learning objectives (understand;
be able to do)
• Shared rubrics at beginning of unit
• Support materials
• Required activities (differentiate on the
fly)

41. 3-2-1
• 3: Tres cosas que no sabía antes
• 2: Dos cosas que vas a seguir investigando
• 1: Una cosa que vas a cambiar en tu vida personal o
profesional basado en la información presentada hoy
28 June 2020 Tokuhama-Espinosa 41
http://crystalclearfinances.com/radio/3-2-1/

42. Contact information:
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.
http://conexiones.com.ec
info@conexiones.com.ec
tracey.tokuhama@gmail.com