Flipped Classroom & Mobile Technology

During the spring semester, I watched a student constantly staring at his phone during the lecture.  He was paying attention but kept staring at that damn phone. Extremely annoyed after class I asked him "WHY?"
 I was surprised by him showing me his phone and what he was looking at.
He was using the Kindle App on his iPhone. What was he reading?  The textbook which he bought for $9.99
I was embarrassed and felt old all at the same time. I quickly realized that I am getting old. My vision has been declining since my forty second birthday.  Also I realized that the PC is out and Mobile is the new technology. I had read this in financial papers but here it was confronting me. I was jealous of that 19 years old kid.He had great eyesight and he was up with the latest technology.
Fast forward to today....
I got an email from Techsmith they produce Camtasia, Snag it and Jing which I use for my online classes.
They are coming out with their new and improved Camtasia 8 (I am too cheap to update I am still on version 4 or 5). After watching their video pitch I started watching some of the other videos on their Youtube Channel.

I found an old idea but with a twist. The old idea was a "Flipped Classroom". Instead of the teacher being "a sage on the stage" have him/her be a helping hand or a tutor to the students. The idea is have students get the lecture material at home at their own pace using (my old fashioned version) computers, CD, DVD,...  or (the new mobile version) using iPod and/or i Phones.
So what will they do in the classroom? You ask!!
In class they participate in classroom problem solving exercises where they attempt to apply what they learned from reading and the lecture on their little handheld devices.
This idea of  flipping the classroom goes way back to the days of CDs and DVDs see the video below. (this video makes me nostalgic for the days of CDs)......

 

Here is the twist, The following is a video showing how one teacher uses iPods to accomplish the same task. No more CDs and DVDs!!

Here is another one with more little iPods. It must be nice to have 20/20 vision! 

 

In case you are wondering, I am doing this whole thing on my little iPod Touch! I want to be young!!

Oh before you get excited there is only one problem a very big problem!!!!
No most of our students have iPods and some have iPads.  The BIG Problem with this method is as follow:
Many of  the students do not read the textbook. Will they watch these videos? I gave up on the Flipped classroom method when I realized this fact.
Only if there was a way to track them.. Where I could be sure that they have watched the lecture and are not just winging it.
Want to see my attempt at a Flipped classroom?

Kindle and Textbooks

Here is something that will lower textbook prices for students.

Textbook Prices

I am thinking of using the following textbook. They let students read on the screen. They charge $1.99 to $0.99 for the PDF format of each chapter. They charge for the physical textbook and will ship it to your home.
Look at the prices and tell me if the pricing system is a fair one or not?

Amazon Confirms Student Version Of Kindle

Amazon Confirms Student Version Of Kindle

Amazon To Target $5.5 Billion Textbook Market With New Kindle?


I saw an interview with the CEO of Amazon on Charlie Rose, so I googled the Kindle and saw the above story. The kindle is too expensive for our students today, but I can imagine as the price of the kindle falls, so will the cost of textbooks for our students. Instead of a $100 textbook imagine paying $9.99 for the same textbook.
Also I imagine posting my lecture notes for my students so they can download it using the Kindle. Here is a video for the kindle.

Free Textbooks and Commercials

Next Fall, I may use a free textbook for my Microeconomics course. The first rule of economics is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Well this textbook is not completely free. The textbook is published by freeloadpress. This publisher provides their textbook online for free with advertisement between the pages. The students can buy an ad free paperback version of the textbook.
The author of the textbook being reviewed by me is Timothy Taylor. He is the editor of a respected journal of economic perspective.
Talking of advertising here is a link to a story on placing advertising on exams. It is a money maker we should consider this! ;-) (is that how you do sarcasm online?)

Free Textbooks

Here is a company "Flatworld" that gives away the electronic version of their textbook away for free. They charge $25 for a printed and bound version of the book mailed to the student. They will let you cusomize the textbook. They will let you (I quote) "Change the order of chapters or sections - or delete them altogether. You can add large chunks of information like a case study or an exercise set." "...and actually make changes at the sentence level."

Here is another site with lots of good links to cut textbook prices.

Textbooks

After reading the following article, Open Textbooks Meet Community Colleges, I have decided to write a textbook for my microeconomics class. Offcourse I will be asking you to correct my grammar and spelling.

Why The Hybrids Are Not Doing Well...Auditory Learners?

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a student. I asked this student "Why don't you sign up for Hybrid classes?" I explained that it is half the time in class and she can save time and money on gas. She replied "in an online or hybrid class I have to read the book more. In a regular class the Professor covers the reading."  She continued "If I take good notes, I can get the main ideas of the reading." Finally as she observed my facial expression, she closed with "I am an auditory learner."  

Harvard University Press Course Book Program

The following is copied and pasted from an email I received from Harvard University Press.
They are offering desk copies for college professors via the internet. They ask for the shipping and handling of $6 .

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS COURSE BOOK PROGRAM
Dear Scholar,
If you are a college professor, Harvard University Press invites you to review our course books online. The Course Book Program enables faculty to easily evaluate Harvard's paperback titles for course use. After registering, the latest scholarship in your field is available at your fingertips—and at no charge. You are welcome to return to the site at any time for further examination.
A selection of 2007 titles, as well as some backlist favorites, are accessible for viewing via our Course Book Program web page. For ease of browsing, course books are categorized by discipline including American History; Business Education; Literature; Music, Arts, Philosophy; Politics Psychology; Sociology; Science; and World History.
There is also an option to order an examination copy of a select group of paperback titles that are not available to view online. A $6 charge for each title will cover shipping and handling; a maximum of three titles may be requested.
Simply visit www.hup.harvard.edu/educators/ to review the latest scholarship in your field.
Sincerely,Jennifer HarringtonHarvard University Press

Free Education? Click Here to Watch

By clicking on the title you can watch Richard Baraniuk from Rice University giving a speech at the TEDtalk. He is talking of doing to publishing what has happened to the music industry. This is an excellent talk and has given me a crazy idea. Can you guess what?

Economics of contemporary issues

This would be an interesting class to teach. I have linked this posting to a possible textbook for such a class.
1. Economic Growth: An Introduction to Scarcity and Choice.
2. An Introduction to Economic Systems and the Workings of the Price System.
3. Competitive Markets and Government Policy: Agriculture.
4. Efficiency in Resource Allocation: How Much Do We Have? How Much Do We Want?
5. Market Power: Does It Help or Hurt the Economy?
6. Air Pollution: Balancing Benefits and Costs.
7. Health Care: How Much? For Whom?
8. Crime and Drugs: A Modern Dilemma.
9. College Education: Is It Worth the Cost?
10. Educational Reform: The Role of Incentives and Choice.
11. Poverty: New Approaches to An Old Problem.
12. Tracking and Explaining the Macroeconomy.
13. Unemployment: The Legacy of Recession, Technological Change, and Free Choice.
14. Inflation: A Monetary Phenomenon.
15. Sustained Budget Deficits: Is This Any Way to Run a Government?
16. Social Security: Leading Issues and Approaches to Reform.
17. International Trade: Beneficial, but Controversial.
18. Financing Trade and the Trade Deficit.

Does Our Textbooks Cover The Important Trends?

The dollar fell against the Euro. The Chinese have a trillion U.S. dollars. Will monetary policy be run out of Beijing or Washington. We should teach our students that pretty soon the chinese will have veto power over our monetary policy. This is an idea that I do not see in the main parts of many textbooks.

Aplia

I have been looking at the look and feel of various textbooks in Aplia. I have looked at Boyes/Melvin, Krugman and Sexton on Aplia. The problem sets are of equal quality.
However, I like the Krugman book set up the best. All of the other publishers have scanned and provide the book one whole chapter at a time. Krugman's book is presented by sections. A student reading can be download one section of the chapter at a time. The other textbooks the student gets the whole chapter at once.
I also liked the fact that questions are peppered in between the sections of the chapter. This will force the students to interact with the reading.