Flipping the INSET

The flipped classroom is a wonderful concept which I completely endorse (and have written about here) where modern technologies are used to engage students in content before a lesson (most typically through teacher-generated videos) freeing up classroom time for the development and application of those skills and knowledge. This is a great way of moving from didactic, content-heavy lessons which can encourage more creative and meaningful learning activities as a result. We have been aware of the spectre of poorly-conceived, PowerPoint-driven lessons for some time and this kind of thinking gives teaching staff the confidence and space to reimagine what they do in the classroom.

A recent meeting with middle leaders where we discussed the characteristics of learning at the school opened up a related issue relating to staff INSET. We frequently use INSET time to share good practice, which, in more recent months, has tended to focus on educational uses of social media tools; Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Lingt Language, Socrative, YouTube, The Virtual School, Screencast-omatic, Pearltrees, Montage ... the list is long and expanding with every session we have. This has started to become a bit of an issue. We are reaching social media saturation and with so many new ideas staff who do not have their finger on the technology pulse can be put off by the sheer volume available. This means that there are a potentially large proportion of our staff who are rather reluctant to embed these wonderful ideas which can be of significant benefit, especially with the flipped classroom concept.

Content-heavy INSET is not everyone's cup of tea

Our problem, and I suspect we are not alone, is that we spend a significant proportion of our INSET time delivering content which therefore means that there is not enough development time for staff to apply the new ideas that they have been introduced to.

So why not flip the INSET? Screencasting and blogging tools allow staff to capture their teaching and learning ideas in a format that allows colleagues to consume the content at their leisure and to fit in with their busy schedules – anytime, anywhere life-long learning. This would then free up time, as with the flipped classroom, for INSETs to be used for the application of new ideas, rather than going away from an INSET thinking, ‘that was a great idea that I’d love to use, but now I’ve got to mark these books, plan this lesson, fetch the kids, etc etc’. Instead the practice can be used in a practical sense and is therefore much more likely to become embedded. Time can be freed up for staff to discuss new ideas and work collaboratively rather than always being the passive recipients of other peoples’ great ideas. We always need teaching and learning champions in schools, but not everyone has the time or inclination to constantly tweak their practise, and it is the school’s responsibility to provide those opportunities.

Some ideas to flipping the INSET:

·        Learnist or Pearltrees – create a series of links relating to a topic or area of interest (such as the flipped classroom or blended learning);

·        Screencast-o-matic or Jing – use screen capture tools to record video explanations and guides for teaching and learning ideas that can be shared with staff at any time;

·        Blogging – write about teaching and learning ideas perhaps embedding pictures of students’ work of video of the idea being put into practice.

It’s about flipping learning and it’s about flipping time (after Stoll and Fink).