Flipped Classrooms: Changing public education for the better.

Flipped classrooms?  In high school I had 90 minute class periods.  Usually it consisted of long lectures by the teachers on their subject, with some awkward group activities and projects, and then the inevitable tests.  If we didn't understand the class material it made doing homework very difficult, and often times there was no one at home to help us understand the material better.

Well, that was in the days just before the internet became prevalent and widely available to all.

Now we have so much content at our fingertips that some are even questioning whether or not classrooms are obsolete!  The modern smartphone has more computing power than the best home computers from my day (graduating class of 2001), and anyone can upload as much content to the internet as their hearts desire.

Here's the rub: despite the plethora of content available to anyone with internet access, there's still much more to learning than simply absorbing information.  That's where context comes into play.

How are the students learning?  Do they have strategies?  What is their emotional state?  Limiting beliefs?  Who answers their questions?  Do they work better alone, or in a group?

Are we getting dumber?

The film Idiocracy is a dark comedy about our culture, 500 years in the future, and the amazing level of stupidity achieved as a result of intelligent couples having less children, while the more stupid couples seemed to be breeding almost for sport.  Consumerism, anti-intellectualism, media saturation, and general apathy rule the new day.

A popular tv show is "Ow My Balls!" in which male contestants are kicked in their junk for audience amusement, and the President of the United States, a former porn star and professional wrestler, drinks 40oz. beers on his monster truck and fires high-powered weaponry into the air.  The movie is hilarious and quotable- and some would say prescient.