On Monday, September 24, 2012, directed by the Provost’s Office, SJSU continued its commitment to digital innovation
21st Century Teaching: Opportunities and Incentives at SJSU
with a gathering of academics, professionals, and administrators at the 21st Century Teaching: Opportunities and Initiatives Symposium held at MLK Library on the SJSU campus.
The symposium came on the heels of the announcement of a major technology initiative to reinvent the academic experience for students on campus; an initiative highlighted by relationships with Adobe, Cisco, edX, OPI, Apple, and numerous other partners.
The morning began with an overview of the digital teaching space by Dr. Candace Thille, Professor and Director of the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University, who presented, “Evidence-Based Innovation in Teaching & Learning: How faculty can leverage cutting-edge online pedagogies to enhance student engagement and foster.”
Dr. Thille covered a number of different areas in the digital teaching space including some techniques and tools that were expanded on during SJSU faculty presentations.
Most notably, the idea of the flipped classroom was showcased, where students watch traditional lectures outside the classroom and in-class time is devoted to group problem solving and critical thinking. The flipped classroom is enhanced with the use of learning management systems and other online tools. The idea challenges traditional approaches to pedagogy in terms of lecture and information delivery.
To ensure the dialogue continues at SJSU, faculty signed up for various technology-related Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) groups (sponsored by The Center for Faculty Development) to explore the digital teaching landscape with colleagues.
What are Flipped Classrooms?
Jerry Overmyer from the University of Northern Colorado, a proponent of flipped classrooms, says on his site that, “The flipped classroom model encompasses any use of using Internet technology to leverage the learning in your classroom, so you can spend more time interacting with students instead of lecturing. This is most commonly being done using teacher created videos (aka vodcasting) that students view outside of class time.”
A link to an overview of flipped classrooms can be found here: The Flipped Class: What it is and What it is Not. A web link for resources can be found here at http://flippedclassroom.org/
An interesting video on flipped classrooms can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H4RkudFzlc