Meaningful Learning

Flipped Learning with AI

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment
Student uses AI at home to research a topic.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about AI and its role in education.

I’ve read my share from the nay-sayers, cautiously optimistic users, as well as those who are leading the charge with AI adoption in the classroom. I also have some insight into how the private sector is viewing AI, including those in the cryptospace. To be clear, I am not professing to be an expert in AI — I am very far from that. But I am well-versed with practical experience in how teachers can harness the power to technology to make learning meaningful and relevant for students.

Now, what I’m going to be posting here are just my thoughts which will likely change and/or be refined over time as the conversation on technology tools and AI continues to evolve. So here goes…

Remember flipped learning?

I had the wonderful opportunity to see Jonathan Bergmann speak about how to flip your classroom back in 2012-ish. What I gained from that session (besides his very informative book) was the idea that I could have my students watch mini-video lectures (no more than 9 minutes) at home, take notes, and then bring them back to class where we could apply what they learned. They did the mundane (but very important task) at home, and in class they got to actively apply what they learned with the assistance and collaboration of their peers along with my guidance.

Having students watch those short videos at home and take notes served multiple purposes:

  • Students could work at their pace ✅
  • Students could determine where and when they wanted to watch the video ✅
  • I gained about 15-20 minutes back in instructional time because I didn’t have to wait for all of my students to copy my notes down before we could move on to the application phase ✅

It was a win-win-win situation.

Now here is what I’ve been thinking about. There have been so many conversations about the benefits, challenges, and negatives when it comes to AI use in the classroom — in particular, I think the main challenge rests with AI use in the classroom itself. Meaning, students are using AI to do their work for them, including providing answers to questions that they should be trying to work through themselves. And if students are allowed to use AI while in class, I don’t see how teachers can prevent any of that happening.

But what if we took the flipped lesson approach?

What if we encouraged students to use AI at home to research a topic and/or use it as a thought-partner for generating an idea for a project AND THEN when they returned to class the very next day…they share their findings with their peers and/or collaborate on a project or activity without any AI assistance. Meaning, no access to technology. Students have their notes that they may or may not have taken when using AI at home but nothing else. This way, they have to internalize what they gleaned from their AI use at home in order to apply it in class the next day.

Here is an example…

The lesson topic is the Five Themes of Geography. Instead of reading the definitions of the Five Themes of Geography in their textbook (boring!), students have two options: (1) they can watch my flipped videos on the Five Themes of Geography and take notes or (2) they can use AI as a thought-partner or tutor to learn the definitions of the Five Themes and take notes. Students who choose the AI option will have parameters to help them create prompts so that they don’t go down a rabbit hole.

Regardless of which option they choose, when they come back to class, students will have a developing understanding of the Five Themes of Geography that they will then apply. Students would work together to draw and identify personal examples that demonstrate their understanding of Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, and Region before we apply that learning to our upcoming units in the following days.

Students apply their learning in class the next day with their peers.

Now, to be clear, AI may not provide the most relevant or most accurate definitions and examples for the Five Themes of Geography (e.g., ChatGPT 4o provided so-so results, Gemini offered better definitions and examples). But I think that’s okay because when students come back to class the next day, they’ll get to have those conversations with their peers and who knows what other teachable moments may come up?

In this scenario, I see AI as being beneficial for several reasons:

  • Student voice and choice — they can choose to watch teacher-created videos or use AI to help them learn particular concepts ⭐️
  • Students can engage in a conversation with AI to drill down further or to expand their scope of exploration (this wouldn’t be the case with a teacher-created video) ⭐️
  • Teachers don’t necessarily have to record videos as students would engage with the AI as a tutor (this would save teachers time because, let’s face it, recording a video using a document camera to do notes can be quite time-consuming) ⭐️
  • Students can see that AI is a tool for learning ⭐️

This brings me to the end of my thoughts on Flipped Learning with AI (for now). But I’m sure I’ll have more to share as I continue to marinate on AI in education. Stay tuned…

Lessons From My Middle Schoolers – Part 2: They Want a Purpose for Learning

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

I chose to teach at the middle school level because I just love that age group. They are constantly straddling the fence between child and teenager. Many of them look for approval from an adult figure while also pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable (or not).

Middle schoolers are also refreshing because while they have a filter, many of them tend to trip over that especially when curiosity takes hold of them. Some of my favorite inquiries over my career include questions such as “Are you having a bad hair day?” and “Did you not sleep well last night? You don’t look well.” Believe me when I say that these queries came from a good place—they were not meant to be malicious. 

This lack of filter also extends to academic work. Middle schoolers know when they are being given busy work. Assigning 100 math problems for homework can easily be construed as busy work when 20 problems would probably suffice for practice. Answering questions at the end of a chapter in the history book is another assignment that would likely be perceived as busy work if it doesn’t result in some type of application of that knowledge when they come back to class the next day. 

Now they may not tell a teacher that they think the tasks are busy work, but they certainly talk about with their peers. And in my case, many of them wrote about it in their Living History Journals, but some just flat out tell me that they are being given busy work. They won’t tell me the teacher’s name (and I never ask), and they have no problem telling me which class it is—I guess they don’t realize that at a small school it’s easy to identify who teaches what and who’s giving busy work or not. 

Middle schoolers can easily switch from the people-pleasing child to a surly preteen in 0.1 second. And that switch can be quickly triggered when they feel as if the academic work they are being asked to do seems like something just to keep them busy. 

This is why it is imperative to design learning experiences that are meaningful. The definition of meaningful learning that I am using here stems from the work by Jonassen and colleagues (2008). Their research specifically focused on meaningful learning with technology. In this case, they propose that in order for learning to be meaningful, it must be active, authentic, constructive, cooperative, and intentional (Jonassen et al. 2008). While they focused on meaningful learning with technology, I believe that their research is relevant no matter if technology is used or not. 

For example, instead of assigning a 100 math problems for homework, why not assign two or three problems and then have them look for an example of that formula or skill being used at home or in their parent’s workplace? Why not bypass the questions at the end of the chapter in the history book, and instead have students find an example of a similar instance in current events and explain the parallel(s)? Maybe even give students a choice on how they want to demonstrate their learning? 

Middle schoolers know that they need to follow the directions of their teachers. They understand authority. But more importantly, they want to do something that is meaningful. Nobody likes busy work—and middle schoolers are no different. 

Yes, it takes more work to design learning experiences that are meaningful. But aren’t our future leaders worth it?

Reference

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R. M., & Crimsond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning with technology (3rd ed.). Pearson Education.