Abstract:

The 21st Century University Classroom will require an innovative high impact collaborative learning environment that promotes multiple means of interaction among digital natives (students) and the professor. Whether students are gifted or have special needs, the new wave of digital natives, Neo-millennials, are in your class and driving today’s classroom - online, F2F, or hybrid. Their learning style demands to be part of the learning and teaching process – my model is co-designed by my students, a design specialist, and me, yet, personalized for individual preferences and differences.

Today’s students are digital natives that see teachers as catalysts and facilitators whose classrooms function seamlessly. They are fluent in multiple media and empowered by technology. Whether they have special needs or gifted, neo-millennials want active learning in their classrooms based on a collective seeking, sieving, and synthesizing experiences. They want expression through non-linear associations – web representations, as well as linear media, e.g., simulation as apposed to writing a paper. Unfortunately, typical online, hybrid and F2F courses offer students little opportunity for such collaborative high impact interactions.

My presentation will showcase my highly successful High Impact online/hybrid/F2F introductory course to special populations that is offered through my version of a flipped classroom. It combines universal design/differentiated instruction concepts with the tools within a learning management system to meet the needs of all students. My presentation will focus on providing participants with ideas on ‘how to’ transform the traditional professor directed survey course that uses lectures and slides, into a more 21st century high-impact technology driven and student-centered interactive practice that will grab the imagination of the neo-millennials, activate their critical thinking, and promote collaboration among all students.

By combining the virtual tools of cloud based technology with innovative web features such as blogs, web quests, wikis, games, surveys, discussions, journals, twitter feed, mashups, videos, quizzlets, and webinars, educators will learn how to convert their courses into an organic virtual world where empirically based instruction is presented in real time and provides authentic experiences for all learners – service learning, problem based learning, team based learning, web quests, and web presentations. Benefits for students and educators will be discussed.

Keywords:

Flipped Classroom, F2F, Online, 21st Century, Neo-millennials, Virtual, Organic.