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Flipping the Classroom & the Digital Divide
With the ever-evolving world of education teachers and administrators
are always looking for ways to enhance the learning experience for the
students. An up and coming trend that is starting to take place in the
upper level education classes is a teaching model called flipping the
classroom. This concept, according to Dr. Jennie Osborn, Learning and
Development Advisor of The Higher Education Academy, UK, is one
that allows creativity, evaluating, and analyzing skills at home for the
student. This takes place by giving first exposure to the subject matter
at home via videos and readings. Thus allowing more time for
application, understanding and remembering the context of the subject
matter through hands on activities and collaboration in the classroom,
resulting in deeper learning via activities. I was curious of the pros and
cons. I continued researching the sources provided as I read through
an article titled 10 Pros & Cons of a Flipped Classroom written by
Mike Acedo of TeachThought.com. According to Acedo, the traditional
classroom hinders students from contributing to their own learning and
forces them to only receive the info while the flipped classroom allows
for enhancement of student achievement by focusing on student
understanding rather than teacher lectures. A few pros he listed are
more student control over their own learning, easier access for parents
to see what their child is learning, and lastly more free time for the kids
with the typical time frame of less than 10 minutes for the video work
at home. In contrast, he explained that not all students learn as well in
front of a computer and it can also lead to a digital divide for students
and school systems in lower income areas that have little or no
Internet and computer access.
This leads me into my next area of discussion, the great digital divide.
In an edutopia.org article titled A New Understanding of the Digital
Divide HS Art/Tech Teacher, Mary Beth Hertz explains that we are no
longer facing a divide of having technology access it is now a divide of
what kind of access. According to her article most families now have
access to the Internet via mobile phones or gaming systems, while this
is helpful for mainly entertainment use, studies still show that many
rural families and minorities still do not have access to home
broadband. I can personally attest to this statistic, as I too am a rural
resident and do not have access to high speed Internet, thus causing
restrictions when it comes to online classes and continuing my
education. Hertz suggests that a solution to the problem could be that
the states fund a broadband infrastructure, insuring rural areas
Internet access. Also companies such as Comcast or Time Warner could
also bring mobile Internet units to the low-income communities just as
the bookmobiles used to years ago. As time goes on and technology

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continues to grow and become a more integrated tool in education, the
gap needs to be closed so learning tools can be used not just in the
school buildings but also in all places.

Works Cited
Osborn, Jennie, Dr. "Flipping the HE Classroom Into the
Future."Slideshare. N.p., 24 July 2015. Web. 15 June 2016.
Acedo, Mike. "10 Pros & Cons of a Flipped Classroom." TeachThought.
N.p., 27 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 June 2016.
Hertz, Mary Beth. "A New Understanding of the Digital
Divide." Edutopia. N.p., 24 Oct. 2011. Web. 15 June 2016.