Blog Tracking Through RSS

One of the blogs I’ve added to my RSS feed and am actively following is the Edutopia blog.  I’ve used Edutopia as a resource for a few years and find that it is always a great wealth of knowledge.  Quickly upon adding the Edutopia blog to my RSS feed, I came across a post that caught my eye.  It was on the idea of the ‘Flipped Classroom.’  This is a term some of my colleagues are tossing around.  From their description, I’ve had a difficult time wrapping my head around the idea.  Essentially the Flipped model means that the kids learn the skills at home and get to practice them at school; the idea that the homework is done at school and is facilitated by the teacher.  I think it could possibly be a great addition to a classroom, however, I don’t think it will work for all kids.  Obviously in education, we know that this idea or problem is common to many teaching strategies.  So, I if we think about flipping our classrooms as an option or one strategy, that’s when it can work.  I expanded upon this notion in my response to the blog post and got two other respondents who shared their feelings toward the idea of flipping.  

This was very powerful for me.  Much like the first time I posted a question on a Ning and got responses, I was almost surprised to see that real, live teachers responded back.  Obviously they, like me, have a personal learning network, but its those simple moments where the collaboration actually takes place that are still amazing to me.  

Since these posts back have been added to the blog I initially commented on, I almost feel more empowered to communicate on other blogs.  It was not that I didn’t feel like I could or that I was nervous to do that before, but it was the act of actually having others reach back that makes blogs so powerful as learning networks or collaborative spaces.  

Below are screen shots of the edutopia posting and my comment. 

Click here to view the blog post and additional comments on Edutopia.