Innovating Vocational Education. Flipped classroom in practice

Abstract

A critical factor in the effective use of technology to enhance or support teaching and learning (referred to, among other things, as technology enhanced learning, or e-learning) is that the technology itself does not overshadow or substitute good quality teaching. While these developments in technology do offer increased and enhanced educational opportunities, any new approaches to teaching and learning should be complemented by knowledge of lear ning theory and pedagogy. Too often the danger arises that the technology erroneously represents some form of “magic bullet”, which can reduce the workload on teachers and facilitate new and better means of learning for students. This can frequently be the case, but this assumption can often miss the need for effort, structure and discipline on the part of all stakeholders to make sure that the technology appropriately and effectively supports the learning and that it has a clear role to play in the learning process - that the technology, for lack of a better term - “knows its place”. As Beetham and Sharpe (2013) note, while digital tools and technologies provide opportunities for “informal, self-directed, independent learning activities”, this in itself is not education. Beetham & Sharpe (2013) argue: “Pedagogy is about guiding learning, rather than leaving you to finding your own way […] our digital native students may be able to use technologies, but that does not mean they can learn from them. Being able to read and write never meant you could therefore learn from books. Learners need teachers.” . And while teachers may look to incorporate innovative strategies in their teaching and learning, a focus needs to “place students at the heart of the education process, [...] to shift to more student-centred, immersive learning experiences, deep faculty/student relationships and the development of critical thinking capacities which remain risk-free for the student experience” (Mukerjee 2014; Norris et al 2012). It is in this context that, on behalf of the Cork Institute of Technology, we are delighted to help participate in the project "FlipIT! -Flipped Classroom in the European Vocational Education” and to have been involved in the development of this E-book. We hope that the information contained within will be of help to both teachers and students (and potentially to other stakeholders) in helping to guide and support the planning and the implementation of the flipped classroom in their respective classrooms (flipped or not). We would also like to credit the work performed by project managers Mária Hartyányi and Judit Mezei from iTStudy Hungary in bringing the project to successful completion.