The New Media Consortium (NMC), which is an international community of experts in educational technology, has recently identified five pressing “wicked challenges” that are vital to the future of education. According to Koehler and Mishra (2008), wicked problems are complex and often difficult to solve because they carry so many variables. Our biggest assignment for this course at the MAET program, Applying Educational Technology to Practice, was to reflectively select one of these challenges and then, in collaboration with our peers, think of ways to solve it, even though a complete solution is not entirely possible.

Fellow educators Sarah Smogor, Tiffany Beedy, Courtney Hansen and I decided that the flipped classroom approach, which is gaining popularity in many classrooms around the globe, could potentially support the new roles required of us teachers. “Flipping” the classroom offers a fresh experience of empowerment and ownership of learning, two of the characteristics that we consider fundamental in today’s educational settings. Although there are setbacks, like not enough resources or lack of professional development, some increasingly popular–and free–tools of video creation and sharing bring this model a step closer to our students.

In a previous course from the MAET, Nathan Walker, Megan Walker and I created this website about screencasting for education, where a handful of ideas and some great examples can be found.

At my school, several teachers have flipped their classrooms. Here’s a snippet about our IB Math Teacher Scott Hsu’s experience with this model:

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Below is the work our group accomplished about this topic. Feel free to share your insights with us!