Flipped Classroom Placement

This project has definitely been one of the most unique that I’ve been assigned in school and it’s also been one of the most enjoyable. Over the course of a few months Max and I were tasked with filming Mr. Rupke’s accounting class three times and uploading those lessons to the internet. The videos were to be made available on Mr. Rupke’s website and the aim of the project was to allow his students to rewatch his lessons at home in order to grasp a better understanding of the subject, figure out homework or to use to study. Max and I figured out the process and completed this experiment in the “Flipped Classroom” method of teaching, and taught Mr. Rupke how to do it in case he wants to try it again in the future.

The placement from the start had it’s ups, downs and perfectly straights, but the entire process was interesting and at the end the project felt complete. I really enjoy playing and often fighting with technology which worked out well because throughout our placement there were seemingly infinite battles with technology. And when it got too frustrating it helped that I had my friend as my partner and we were able to work things out together.

When I think about the assignment now many things stand out in my mind as going well, unlike most other projects that I undertake. Overall I feel as though we communicated well with Mr. Rupke and were on the same page on just about everything regarding the project. Furthermore, I enjoyed how the videos turned out, and although this is pretty insignificant I’m proud of the camera work. The zooms in and out, pans and adjustments made it feel more professional.

The successes aside, there were numerous bouts of internal screaming throughout the process. The first complication presented itself in the form of Sony’s possessed and god forsaken video camera software. Some of the geniuses over at Sony I can only imagine decided that it would be funny to give the middle finger to the very precise and practical japanese culture in which their company was built, by creating a video camera that could only save pictures to the removable SD card. We eventually overcame this obstacle and the videos made it to the internet. However, this was not our only run in with technology, as I edited the videos on Windows Movie Maker in order to teach Mr. Rupke how to do the same, and this made make fist sized hole in my wall. Coming over from professional editing software I expected Movie Maker to be a breeze but alas, it turns out that Microsoft hired those same sony geniuses to make this software, and this time they felt like sticking it to Bill Gates. Nevertheless, I figured out the absurd clip dragging mechanics and render settings, and was able to explain it to Mr. Rupke.

At the end of the day everything came out like we had imagined in the beginning and we got to where we wanted to go, even if there were some potholes in the road and our car broke down and we were left stranded with nothing to do for a bit.

This assignment as a whole is very valuable and useful for multiple reasons. It’s a real change of pace from what we normally do, and it’s open ended, flexible and up in the air nature is a lot of fun and forces you to think creatively and take initiative. Not to mention that unlike just about every other school project at the end of it you have something that was actually useful and that may have helped someone left behind. I think that for what it is the project is almost perfect, in the future groups could perhaps be larger and the students could undertake larger projects. But as it stands, the freedom the assignment gave us was refreshing and ultimately worked out well.