Education WiFi Networks: Essential To 21st Century Flip Learning

Flip learning is nothing new but the methodologies of delivering it need to keep up with digital-native students. In order to competently use this pedagogical approach in the 21st century, educational establishments need to have secure and high-speed education WiFi.

What is flip learning?

Flip learning is an approach that allows teachers to create an interactive learning environment across both homes and institutions. It allows for both group and individual work to take place across differing environments and for teachers to easily monitor and evaluate progress. Whereas older styles of flipped learning have students reading outside of class, watching televised documentaries or taking home worksheets for additional study, digital-native millennials need a more learner-centred approach, utilising their competencies in internet research and their fondness for smartphones and other gadgets.

This active construction of knowledge removes the role of the teacher as the primary source of information and empowers students to analyse and evaluate the reliability of internet sources in formal learning and personal lives, therefore gaining ownership.

How is it used?

Using in-class quiz apps such as Kahoot take time to set-up correctly yet are invaluable for continual observation of students’ progress throughout the lesson as they allow relevant feedback at the moment of assessment via students’ smartphones.

Many educators are also beginning to create and develop their own YouTube channels made specifically for their classes, delivering key information ahead of the lesson and allowing students to be briefed on the content of the lesson before it begins. Students use their smartphones, tablets or laptops during lunchtimes and breaks to develop knowledge and opinions on lessons before they are delivered and therefore arrive in the lesson at a more advanced stage of learning, having already covered much of the content.

Outside the classroom, educators and students can ask one another questions, establish learning groups or send quick ideas for projects via apps such as WamEdu, which is structured similarly to familiar social networking sites. If a student feels unsure about a task set, they need to only message their tutor or peers without the need for logging onto email accounts or for any private details to be shared.

Looking to the future

Reflective learning and the use of ICT both inside and outside the classroom look set to remain as OFSTED-friendly, student-friendly and teacher-friendly initiatives, removing the teacher as the source of knowledge and empowering learners. Without adequate WiFi networks, beneficial apps and other tools can not correspond adequately to the requirements of 21st century learners.

Contact Redway Networks for more information.