July 20: Flipped Classrooms and Scratch

Yesterday we talked about Scratch, a simple and fun programming language for people of any age. Although the interface is very simple, you can create surprisingly complex things using Scratch, making it a fantastic way to develop learning artifacts. We're also going to take a look at the concept of flipping the classroom.

• Review of some of the coding concepts we talked about yesterday
• Introduction to Scratch: Some of the types of things you can create
• Signing up for accounts and learning how the basics work
• Exploration and experimentation on the Scratch site
• Introduction to the flipped classroom
• Considering some of the challenges and benefits
• Reading 1: How Flipping the Classroom Can Improve the Traditional Lecture
• Example of flipped classroom video
• Dealing with some of the challenges, especially lack of internet access
• Reading 2: Modifying the Flipped Classroom: The In Class Version
• Challenge #1: blog post on the concept of the flipped classroom. Would you ever use it? How would you need to modify it? What are some of the benefits and drawbacks you see? Share your blog post on Edmodo when you are ready.
• Challenge #2: Create a learning artifact using Scratch. It can be anything you want, but should either demonstrate a learning objective from this course or a learning objective your students might need to know
• Extension activity (as time permits): Create a video for the flipped classroom