Thursday, September 6, 2012

Missing the (Flipped/Digital Textbook) Point


If you’re a connected educator, you’ve seen the online discussion going on about two topics- The Flipped Classroom and Digital Textbooks.

The more that I read about these two topics, the more I think that most people miss the point.

Rather than, simply making lectures available outside the classroom, the point of the flipped classroom (in my opinion) SHOULD be how to make the “flip” from teacher-centered, low-level thinking, fabricated exercises to student-centered, higher order thinking, authentic learning activities.

Rather than simply taking the profane sums of money that we spend on textbooks and other print materials and spending them on equally expensive (sometimes more) digital materials, the point (in my opinion) SHOULD be how to make the “flip” to student researched, student selected, and student created learning materials.

So, when you join the discussion about these two topics, help me turn the conversation to what SHOULD be the point (assuming you agree with my opinion).

Thursday, August 30, 2012

So, I'm a BHS teacher on Twitter. Now what?


More BHS faculty members are beginning to embrace the power of social media for both increased communication with students/parents and for professional learning.

Thanks to Ben Lewis (@benlewis86), we now have a “BHS Twitter Users” Google Form to help locate everyone at BHS that is using Twitter.  If you haven’t entered your data, please do so here.

Twitter is one of the most productive tools that I have used to develop my Professional Learning Network (PLN) over the past 5+ years.  If you’re not on the bandwagon yet, jump on!

To learn more about how to use Twitter for both professional growth and in the classroom, check out these links:




As always, feel free to follow me (@sparacino) for the latest “edtech” and other resources that I come across and tweet about. 
My Diigo library is also a treasure trove of educational resources.  Happy hunting!

Remember our challenge from Will Richardson.  What are you going to do differently this year to help move our school forward and model life-long learning with digital tools for our students?