Ted Ed

The first Web2.0 tool to be reviewed and reflected upon is Ted Ed.  Ted Ed is the educational initiative of Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) and it was launched in 2012.  Ted Ed's aims is to share the ideas of teachers and students around the world and how it hopes to achieve this is through an interactive platform where videos can be used as the focus for online lessons created freely. The videos can be paired alongside questions in a range of formats to allow students to create and share thoughts and discussions online.  The lesson creator can also guide the student to extra videos or reading through the supplementary information or dig deeper section.  The image below shows what a typical lesson may look like.

(Taken from http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/ted-ed)

Ted Ed builds upon the flipped learning concept which is a type of blended learning and was originally piloted by 2 high school chemistry teachers in 2007 (Bergmann & Sams 2012).  Flipped Learning is a teaching approach which reverses the traditional lecture and homework elements so that the student is guided by the teacher to study in individual learning spaces, often their home, rather than in a group situation.  It is often simpified to 'school work at home and home work at school' but it is much more than that.The following video gives a overview of how a flipped classroom can work.

So there are 2 main components to a flipped lesson; the interactive group activities within the classroom and the computer-based individual study activity outside the classroom however for the session to be truly flipped it must include The Four Pillars of F-L-I-P.  These are

F - Flexible Environment
(flexible learning spaces where the students chose where and when they learn as well as flexible expectations with regard to timelines and assessment of learning)
L - Learning Culture
(a learner centred approach where the classroom is spent exploring the learning in greater depth)
I - Intentional Content
(where the teachers determined what content the students explore on their own and what they need to teach)
P - Professional Educator

(during the classroom time, students are observed, provided with feedback and have their work assessed by the teacher (educator))
(Flipped Learning Network 2014)

Having previously used video clips from Ted Talks in sessions, it appeared logical and a natural progression to try out using some video clips in a more structured way.  The intention is to use create a lesson each week for the Maths Subject Specialism module which is taught for the Year 2 and 3 QTS undergraduate course.  The same lesson will be created and shared with both cohorts as they will both be quite small groups of between 8 and 10 students.

Ted Ed is very easy to use and setting up a lesson only takes as long as watching the video and thinking about some questions and /or discussion points.  The lesson is then shared via a URL as below.
https://ed.ted.com/on/QGwBmlYR
This is the first lesson which will be shared where Professor Edward Frenkel talks about why maths is not loved and how we can change people opinions about.  Two questions have been posed about the video followed by a discussion about it.

With the student able to watch the videos on a range of devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops or traditional desktop PC, the aim is that they will do so some time between the sessions which are on a Monday morning.  They will then be the focus for a discussion at the start of the session.  One of the great features of Ted Ed is that videos from other sources such as YouTube can be added very easily in to the lessons.  Having used a range of video clips on YouTube this opens up an extensive range of mathematical video clips such as lesson observation, calculation procedures or mathematical problems which can be integrated in to the Ted Ed lesson to create a more flipped learning approach.

Some of the potential benefits of using Ted Ed include developing the use of informal learning (Downes 2010).  As the students have mobile devices to access the content they might watch it whilst on a bus or train or whilst relaxing at home.  Informal learning, which is learning that takes place as a result of daily activities related to work or home life, is more likely to be successful if Web2.0 characteristics such as collaboration and communication are available (Song & Lee 2014).  As Ted Ed has discussion features included it allows for collaboration and communication.  For some students using Ted Ed may help them to develop some vital ICT skills which will also assist them to access a range of other instruction content through the internet.

There is also evidence that flipped learning modules have raised student performance and interest in their learning when video podcasts and pre and post course surveys have been 'flipped' (Pierce & Fox 2012; Chen & Summers 2015).  The hope is that the Ted Ed sessions will promote discussion, collaboration and develop an interest in finding out more about mathematics and the teaching of it.  The students have chosen the Maths Subject Specialist module because they have an interest in teaching maths and learning about it.  These inter-sessional activities will kindle that passion for the subject as well as help them develop a CoP.  If the lessons on Ted Ed prove to be successful within the Maths Subject Specialist group, as YouTube clips can be incorporated into them, lessons will be created for other groups and modules as a meanings to develop communication, collaboration and subject knowledge.  After the initial session using Ted Ed, feedback would be taken from the students about how they liked or disliked the activity and any ways which they could see that it could be improved.

(Taken from http://www.inhabitots.com/ted-ed-clubs-encourage-students-to-become-the-next-generation-of-public-speakers/ted-gordonville/)

Concerns about using the lessons on Ted Ed would have to be that no-one accesses them and so they are created for no users.  Access may also be last minute for example late on a Sunday evening before the session on Monday so not allowing any thoughtful discussion to take place.  The discussion may go off topic and the discussion section simply becomes a sounding board for other course related issues.   Another consideration is the access to technology that the students have.  There is an assumption that they are able to access the internet although most of our students do have an multitude of devices which they can access the internet with, this could affect some groups of learners more.  Considering other groups of learners, especially younger learners, pushing the learning into the time at home might not be viewed too favourably by some people and could eat into the precious family or friends time.  However with the students all being used to Web2.0 social media, there is a strong belief that it will be successful.

References

Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip your classroom: reach every student in every class every day. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education.

Chen, H-S., & Summers, K. (2015) Developing, Using, and Interacting in the Flipped Learning Movement: Gaps among Subject Areas International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16, 3, pp. 41-64

Downes, S. (2010). New technology supporting informal learning, Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence, 2(1), 27-33 

Flipped Learning Network (2014) The Four Pillars of F-L-I-P(TM) Available at: http://flippedlearning.org/cms/lib07/va01923112/centricity/domain/46/flip_handout_fnl_web.pdf Accessed: 16 June 2016

Pierce, R., & Fox, J. (2012) Vodcasts and active learning exercises in a 'flipped classroom' model of a renal pharmacotherapy module.  American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 76(10) Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3530058/ Accessed: 16 June 2016

Song, D, & Lee, J (2014). 'Has Web 2.0 revitalized informal learning? The relationship between Web 2.0 and informal learning', Journal Of Computer Assisted Learning, 30, 6, pp. 511-533