Flipped and Blended Learning

Flipped learning, where lesson material is prepared and recorded by a teacher and then viewed at home allowing students to come to school with a baseline of knowledge, is something that has bothered me for a while.
I am not against the idea of students being able to view material at their own pace or understanding level but what I am against is this notion of learning being seen as 'homework'. And I think homework is an issue.

Access to technology is not equal, access and time available after school is not equal, parental support and encouragement for homework and home study is not equal. The idea around moving or flipping the instruction for students to the home, doesn't sit well with me. Having been in the US for three months over the past three years, I have been able to get a 'little bit' of insight into homework and it's role (from an outsiders perspective) in the US educational system. Personally, I was shocked at the amount of homework given to students and the extent at how textbook based learning appeared to be the basis for learning. (Disclaimer: I'm not saying that's how all US Ed is based but just from what I witnessed). So, I can see how a flipped base of learning might appeal to that system of education and I do see some big benefits. It would considerably cut down on 'homework' and help students build up personal knowledge of the subject to bring to the classroom for teachers to guide, extend and clarify with students. Discussions could be richer, students more engaged without having to 'guess whats in the teachers head', and opportunities to explore multiple perspectives and apply new learning in different contexts would be evident. All great things right?!

My issue comes down to home access, as stated above. And whilst I was trying to grapple with this idea in my head, managed to stumble across the 'in class flip'. THANK YOU! Edutopia article on in-class flipped learning

Here we equal the playing field and students after school are not bogged down with extras. I already use blended learning in my classroom and a rotation and workshop type arrangement - especially for mathematics and reading/language type activities. This frees me up to work with individual students or small groups of students for guided instruction.

My favourite applications/site to use is TES Teach with Blendspace.

This is one of my Blendspace lessons on Fractions.

This is such a user friendly interface which allows you to upload a range of content and file types so that students can direct their own pace of learning, select areas of need to work and develop and allow for choice and control over their learning. You can select, find and upload You tube clips, upload your own screencast, instructionals, pdfs, images, directly question students, insert links etc etc. Blendspace has links to Google classroom, Google drive, Edmodo, Twitter, Drop box etc. It's really great. You can view and share other lessons with teachers or you could even get your students to create lessons.
Blend it up! But in my opinion... do it at school. If the kids are engaged they'll do their own 'homework'!

Anyway that's all from me for this week.
Ka kite

PS My homework is minimal and something that is done because our school/parent community expect it. Reading, spelling and something student designed at the moment.