Fronter as a backbone of flipped class room
I have been using fronter as a platform for a teaching method called flipped class room. In flipped class room the teacher is not lecturing during lesson and the whole lesson time is used to do problems (and laboratory works in physics/chemistry). This means that teacher has more time to help students according to each ones individual needs. Students are watching lectures at home in their own pace and they can concentrate better to the lecture (and repeat it if needed). More about flipped class room can be found out from example: http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/
I have been using flipped class room method in mathematics and physics. In both cases each group have their own Fronter room in each subject. In each Fronter room I have collected a variety of material for home and lesson use. Materials include embedded theory videos, theory slides, problem examples, worksheets, solutions, laboratory work instructions, links to online information sources and links to online worksheets. With maths, students also did their own teaching videos in small groups that were shared to the whole group in Fronter.
In flipped class room method students are working in their own pace, it means also that students are doing different things during lessons. In the class where I'm teaching I have two student computers that students can use to access to Fronter materials during lessons (for example, in case they finished a topic and moving on into a another) . Students could also use Fronter during lessons from their mobile phones (through 3G or schools WLAN). In both subjects I had also some lessons in media lab so each student could use a computer.
I have been using flipped class room longest in math and I also did survey among the students about the method. In their comments most students found the videos and other materials in Fronter very helpful. Also by far most students would like to continue to study math using flipped class room.
Without Fronter sharing all different materials in a way that is easy to manage from teachers point of view and easy to use for students is difficult. For me Fronter has already been a very useful tool during the last 4 years and it became even more important when I started to use Flipped class room.
