At the 10:15AM poster session, I focused mainly on two talks: flipped learning and online vs. traditional learning. I thought the flipped learning talk was very interesting, not to mention the speaker was also pretty funny and refreshing. I was not familiar with the concept of flipped learning prior to the talk, but anything that analyzes how we as students and humans learn is something I am very interested in. I have often thought that the way schools work in modern times can be quite counter-productive. For countless classes, all students do is cram information for a specific period of time, spit it all out when taking an exam, and only retain a small percentage of the material. For many students, the information goes in one ear, onto the paper, and then disappears. It is how the system works and is how many students operate. The flipped learning talk talked about changing how class time is spent. The example given was a 50 minute Chinese class, where certain areas of the class like vocabulary were cut down in time to allow for more interactive practices. In addition, in a flipped learning classroom, students prepare for class before actually going (they work to get ready) so they are not sitting in class for 20 minutes inactively. The activeness of class was stressed, and the speaker focused on how the more active a class is, the easier it is to retain information.
The other talk involved traditional vs. online learning, and how learning differs between the two. For many students, traditional classes do not provide the best learning environment. Online classes, however, can be more efficient and yet more relaxed, without sacrificing information. After taking an online class, students said that it was a great experience and that they indeed retained more information.
The talks were both intriguing and changed my perspective on analyzing the way we learn.