I am in week 2 of a Learning in the Digital Age course at the University of Birmingham. Writing blog posts is part of the assignment and this is the first of four posts which I will be sharing on here. The course is cleverly designed so that we experience what it is like firsthand to be a learner in the digital age.
Today we discussed Flipped Learning and in this blog post I’m going to reflect on why this topic is important and what I found most interesting about flipped learning.
Let’s start with a definition from the book Flipped Learning (Talbot): “Flipped learning is a pedagogical approach in which first contact with new concepts moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space in the form of a structured activity …. and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter”.
- Self-teaching
- Self-assessment
- Self-regulation
- Self-confidence
We experienced the above in the session by completing our own mini research project and creating a Canvas e-learning resource in a 30-minute activity. This was engaging for me as a learner and in a short space of time I gained an insight in to the topic we were assigned “self-regulated learning”. I reflected on the impact of this and how the learning was enhanced through “doing” rather than the lecturer simply disseminating the information.
I’m inspired as a result of the session to do some more reading on the topic of flipped learning and will look again at a book sitting on my shelf called “Who owns the learning” (Alan November). 
The book provides ideas and techniques to help students own and direct their learning.
I work with students to help them plan for their future career and will reflect on insights shared by Danielle, our course leader, about how self-regulated learning enables students to develop the life and career skills for an agile and adaptable approach required in the workplace. Our main assignment for the course is to design a resource or learning activity integrating appropriate learning technologies. With this in mind I’m building a list of tools and techniques including the tool used in week one: http://www.menti.com.
