Blog #9: Flipped Classroom and OER

Flipped Classroom

After learning about a flipped classroom and what it entails, I have concluded I am not the biggest fan. My first concern is that the students should not have the pressure to learn entirely new material on their own. The chances of them learning the material the right way are very slim. I believe this would leave the students discouraged. My second concern is that when the students return to class the next day to review, the students will all have a different understanding of the lesson and this will make it very hard for the teacher to review. I do not believe the pressure implemented on the students or the teachers is fair.

OER

On the other hand, I am a huge supporter of Open Educational Resources. OER's are high-quality teaching, learning, and research materials that are free for people everywhere to use and repurpose. I think this is amazing being that textbooks are ridiculously expensive these days. A college student can expect to spend hundreds on textbooks each semester alone, and some classes require more than one book. I believe that OER's provide an equal playing field for students who can and cannot afford learning materials. 

OER Article 

Powerpoint 

I have always considered myself to be pretty familiar with powerpoint. It is an application I have used all throughout school and have even used it during my teaching internships. However, this class as taught me many cool tricks when it comes to making my presentation enjoyable. The first skill I learned was how to insert an "action" on buttons so that you can control which slide it advances to when the student clicks the arrow to move forward. The second thing I learned was how to incorporate SmartArt into my powerpoint and it look appealing! SmartArt adds a little extra to the presentation!