'Flipped' classrooms take advantage of technology

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
October 7, 2011

Step into Stacey Roshan's Advanced Placement calculus class some morning and two things become apparent: The students don't seem stressed-out, as AP students often do. And the teacher is barely teaching.

Sitting in pairs, students poke at their iPads waiting for class to begin. But in place of a long-winded lecture there's Roshan, a petite brunette with a broad smile, moving through the room, urging students to take out their homework.

In a word, Roshan has "flipped" her class.

Pressed for time and struggling to reach a generation raised on YouTube, Roshan, like a growing number of teachers, digitally records her lessons with a tablet computer as a virtual blackboard, then uploads them to iTunes and assigns them as homework. In class the following day, she helps students work out exercises and answer knotty questions.

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