The Flip Classroom

Perhaps the term might sound ancient to the already heard, yet it was all neoteric to me. 

The concept was brewed into our lesson during the presentation from the Guest Speaker Associate Professor Dr Chailerd Pichitpornchai. 

President of Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Dr Chailerd

Currently the President of Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University in Thailand, Professor Chailerd is a medical doctor by profession. 

Walking into the circle of the audience, "Sukhothai Thammathirat is the only open university in Thailand. Do you know the meaning of an OPEN? sternly asked the professor. 

The floor remained mute. But soon the clog of mutism was cleared when he answered himself. 

"Open means not closed". 

A huge torrent of laughter swept the class that even the moving hands of the clock were frozen for some time to let him begin.

"Open means to have an education of all sorts (including distance teaching and learning) systems with an open-door academic policy", he cleared. 

Albeit the fumes of a flip classroom talk sounded captivating, it evaporated with the introduction of his topics on E-Learning and Instructional Design. 

Having attained technological puberty, many schools in the world have shifted to flip teaching. 

This is a kind of teaching model where homework becomes classwork. The students learn new concepts and topics online by watching video lectures at home and attending the next class for discussion with their teachers. The teachers, instead of the usual lecture-based teaching, assume the perfect role of a guide and a facilitator through a series of interactions and discussions. In a gist, this kind of education portrays a perfect model of guided learning. 

But, I was made to think whether such kind of learning model would be reachable to the network of our Bhutanese Education System? If we claim of having proper internet connectivity throughout the kingdom, I bet, this sounds fairly a good deal to kick off. 

In the circle of academicians and scholars, prolonged debates have proven to have erupted with the lavas of advantages by following such a model of teaching, while demerits are also accompanied as well.

Children would get ample time to explore themselves at their own pace more privately and have unlimited fun in learning. Because they hold the remote to forward, pause or rewind the clip, again and again, the entire city of exploration is always conquerable. Further, the scholarly clips available on YouTube and Khan academy are the most powerful documents to assist such programs to sustain its life. 

Nonetheless, I feel our education system has miles to go and hard times to sweat to obtain this prescription of the flip classroom. With poor internet connectivity, it would still remain a question for some more time.

Should the hand of Zuckerberg's ambitious project of connecting 5 billion people reach Bhutan, the future is always promising. 

"He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery"- Samuel Smiles