Flipped Classroom

What is Flipped Classroom? 

It's a new way to teach using pre- recorded lectures to optimize class time with discussion and engaging activities. The students review the material at home in form of a short video, so they come prepared to class. The lectures are to be recorded either by the instructor or downloaded from a independent website.

There is no single model for the flipped classroom. The only way to know if the students learn is by quizzing them.

Regardless of how students access to the video, this method has many advantages for students, teachers, and even parents.

PROS:

• Parents can be part of the process by seeing what their children are learning and help them.
• Students are in control; they can skip the materials they already know, and  repeat what they are struggling with as many time as they need. 
• Students will feel more comfortable at applying what was learn in the classroom.
• Videos can provide links that could help them expand their knowledge, or just clarify any concept.
• Teacher can dedicate classroom time to answer any questions, or to work with those who still have some doubts.
• Learning process won't be affected by sickness or forced absences.

Unfortunately, like any other method, it also has its disadvantages.

CONS:

• Hard to assure all students will have access to a computer and Internet.
• Students will have to hold until class with any question when the concept is confusing.
• Designing and grading daily quizzes will be much work for the teacher.
• It may be to complex  for students when designed by a predetermined provider and not by the teacher. 
• How to deal with those students who don't complete their homework.
• Finding quality videos-examples for each lesson.

The system is already being used by some higher education individual faculty, especially for short tutorials of lectures that are difficult to explain in a regular setting. In traditional lectures, students struggle to take notes as the instructor speaks, causing them to misunderstand or miss information that might be crucial, for which videos would be more effective. 

In the other hand, flipping a classroom lecture requires careful preparation of the materials taught, recording the videos demand time and extra effort from the teachers, which may require the teachers to develop new skills. Also, some students might miss the face to face interaction experienced in the traditional lectures. There might be others who can see the flip as a way to skip class and focus on other activities.

New tools emerge to support the out-of-class portion of the curriculum. Particularly, at the speed technology develops. The ongoing changes in mobile devices are making  the access to educational resources wider, reaching more students.

In conclusion, flipped classroom constitutes a huge leap for instructors, who are willing to sacrifice  their front-of the-class position to favor a more interactive, creative, hands on model of learning.  The system leaves more responsibility in the shoulders of the students, as well as allows them to learn the concepts first hand and at their own speed. The class goes from monotone to dynamic, providing more communication among students.

Sources
7 Things you need to know about Flipped Classrooms
Center of Teaching and Learning
Wikipedia.org-Flipped_classroom