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Together We Flip, Divided We Flop: A Look at the “Digital Divide” and its Effects on the Decision to    Convert to the “Flipped Classroom” Model Erica Reinbold Shippensburg University

 With the amount of technology used in classrooms today, the educational system is seeking ways to help improve its uses by expanding on technology based learning outside of the classroom. Recently many schools have been looking into and converting to the “flipped classroom” or “reverse learning” model. The flipped classroom model essentially reverses the classic style of learning by switching the roles of the in class learning (the lecture) and the home based learning (the homework). This model requires heavy use of technology in a student’s home environment in order to watch and/or listen to teacher created lectures via video, podcast, or vodcast through the internet. The flipped classroom model is not perfect. This model has many flaws including a student’s ability and willingness to watch, use, and take notes on the lectures viewed at home, parents’ ability and willingness to assist students in accessing the materials at home, and the “digital divide”, the availability and accessibility of technology for students outside of the school setting. Since being able to have and access technology outside of the classroom is a major part of the reverse learning model, the digital divide seems to present something of a problem. When attempting to look at a broad issue like the impact of the accessibility of technology on school performance, it is important to take a more narrow focus. In the case of an educational model like the flipped classroom, narrowing the focus means we should select a single subject and grade level(s). Due to its importance to students and curriculums, the core area of mathematics will be the focus for subject. This study will center on elementary education which will be defined as grades first through sixth. With these decided, the question of interest can be defined. Will the “digital divide” present an issue when converting to the “Flipped Classroom” model for mathematics classes in elementary grade levels? Since its creation, educators and other professionals have been discussing the Flipped Classroom model and the things that impact it through a variety of means. Even among those participating in higher education, this seems to be a hot button issue. Definitions of the flipped classroom and the digital divide are discussed in many contexts and with varying differences. Many are discussing these concepts, and even applying and measuring them in classrooms, so it is important to learn more about this new trend in education. The Flipped Class Model has differing definitions depending on who is consulted. Bush (2011) explains it as the opposite of the traditional model in that the students are receiving the instruction at home while doing the practice in the classroom. Gerstein (2011) describes it as the students watching and listening to lectures as homework and using the class time for the exercises that were once done at home. It has also been described as getting the lectures at home and doing the homework in class (Faulkner, 2011). Despite the differences in how each definition is worded, they all say the same thing; the students are getting lectures at home and practice at school. The digital divide is an issue that is discussed across many fields and as such has many definitions. Bush (2011) points out the concept in saying that students often have limited or no access to internet at home. The digital divide is also described as the gap in accessibility of information technology between individuals and communities (Dickard & Schneider, 2002). Crawford (2011) says that our country is noting an increasing trend where the well-off have high speed internet access, while the less well-off can afford limited access if any at all. Despite the term’s widespread use, these definitions are similar in that they all involve access to the internet at home. There are many methods to measure these concepts. In Bush’s (2012) experiment with the flipped classroom, she compared class averages between her flipped class and the previous year’s traditional class. Bush (2012) also utilized surveys to determine the opinions of her students and their parents. Surveys were used in another study to learn about students’ usage of and access to technology (Russell, O’Brien, Bebell, & O’Dwyer, 2003). A similar study used surveys to learn the opinions of educators (O’Connor, Goldberg, Russell, Bebell, & O’Dwyer, 2004). There seems to be a trend of using surveys and traditional academic evaluations to determine the impact, effectiveness, and opinions of the flipped classroom and the digital divide. Current opinions regarding the digital divide, the flipped classroom, and the relations between the two are mixed. Gerstein (2011) discusses that the flipped classroom is generally good, but runs into problems in that students need the technology to get materials at home, and educators are not sure how to use their class time. The survey conducted by Russell et. al. (2003) found that almost all of their students had access at home, but their study was done with a sample that was mostly urban. O’Connor et. al. (2004) found that accessing the technology within schools can be difficult as well. Another article states that most of the success stories for the flipped class model came from educators who were entertaining, and that boring instructors would still be boring (Faulkner, 2011). Bush (2011) surveyed parents to find some of their opinions and comments, finding that many of her students didn’t have access to internet or computers at home, but also that parents liked that students could do the homework in class where she could help when they had questions. Though these opinions differ, there seems to be a common trend of hopefulness, praising the model while cautioning against the barriers to its success. The literature on these topics is widespread and varying in its opinions and conclusions. However, there are some consistencies that are able to be followed. The Flipped Classroom can be defined as a reversal of traditional roles where students practice at school and watch lectures at home. The digital divide is described as the separation between those who have access to computers and/or the internet at home, and those who do not. The most common ways to evaluate them are through traditional academic evaluations and surveys. Opinions of these things and their interactions are mixed, but are usually hopeful. The general opinion seems to be that the flipped classroom has the potential to succeed, but there are many obstacles to look out for, including the digital divide. The research for this study will employ non-experimental correlational and survey designs of both quantitative and qualitative types. A qualitative measure will be used to determine attitudes about the flipped classroom and the digital divide, as well as the availabilities of technology to students outside the classroom, in the form of surveys that will be distributed throughout the study, some via online programs such as surveymonkey.com. There will be four surveys that will be using close-ended multiple choice questions and five point Likert format questions. Survey A will be designed to determine students’ access to and general usage of computers and internet at home. Survey B will be designed to determine educators’ attitudes about the flipped classroom model and the digital divide. A functional definition of each will be provided at the top of the page. Survey C would be a gage of the student opinions and beliefs about the traditional and flipped classroom models as they go through their academic year in each of these systems. Survey D would be a measure of the educator opinions and beliefs about the teaching model they would be using that academic year. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Traditional academic assessment would be used to measure students’ success under each model. Students would be tasked to complete various assignments from worksheets and quizzes, to tests and projects. Standard grading methods would apply and individual schools could assign whatever letter grades they attach to the percentage, but the raw scores would be collected by the instructors. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> The participants for this study will be a selected group of instructors and the students they teach within all school districts whose boundaries come into contact with or are contained in Cumberland, Franklin, and Adams counties in the state of Pennsylvania. Each district will be assigned a two digit number based on their position in an alphabetical list of all participant districts. Two mathematics instructors of each grade level between first and sixth from each school district will be randomly selected by the school board of their district and will be assigned a two digit number, where the first number is their grade level, and the second number is determined by their position in an alphabetical list. The students who will be participating in this study would be a convenience sample selected because they are in classes the instructors are teaching. Each student will be assigned a three digit random number. The first digit is which class of the day they are in for the instructor and the second two numbers will be their position in an alphabetical list of students in that class. Therefore instructor data will be reported by district and instructor number (##-##) and student data will be presented with those and student number (##-##-###). It will be the responsibility of the school board to designate a non-participant collector for the data who will submit it to the researcher. Identities are kept anonymous to prevent researcher bias. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Once the participants have been determined, the materials to test the impact of the digital divide may be passed out. The selected instructors will be divided into two groups based on the second digit of their instructor number; Group A whose value is 0, and Group B whose value is 1. There will be two sets of materials provided. One set will be for the curriculum to be taught in the flipped classroom model, and the other set will be for the curriculum to be taught via the traditional method. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Each group will be given all necessary materials to teach their math classes for one academic year. This is to include lesson plans, vodcasts, podcasts, and videos of lectures, additional digital teaching and learning tools, and all necessary in-classroom technology incorporation, handouts and assessment tools to prevent much of the variance between instructors. Also included in these packets will be a number of extra credit opportunities to be completed outside the classroom as a measure of student motivation. The instructors will follow the lesson plans to the best of their ability with their classes for the duration of the academic year, and administer all academic assessment tools at the scheduled times with permitted variance for inclement weather, emergencies, and in service days. Opinion surveys will be distributed five times throughout the academic year: at the beginning of the year and at the end of each quarter. These surveys will be used to determine initial predictions and attitudes towards the model, and later attitudes and perceived performances as the models are continued to be used. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The study will be run over the course of two academic years, wherein each instructor will be teaching one academic year with the Flipped Classroom Model lesson plans, and one year with the traditional lesson plans. The group that the educator is in will determine in which order they will be using these methods. Group A will first teach the Flipped Classroom, then the traditional classroom, and Group B will use the traditional method first, and then switch to the Flipped Classroom for the following year. The data will be collected at various points and analyzed multiple times throughout the experiment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The data will be collected in two ways. The opinion data will be collected via questionnaire five times throughout the academic year. Once at the beginning, and again at the end of each quarter. Each time a round of surveys is completed they will all be labeled with the relevant instructor or student number and packaged by the appointed collection assistant. Each round of surveys after the first will also require the current grades in the form of point totals attached to the student numbers. They should include total points earned out of total points possible on each individual assessment tool, and then a grand total for the quarter. It should also note how many of the extra credit opportunities were taken advantage of by students, and their points earned and points possible. All data will be packaged by district number, instructor number, and student number, and transferred to the researcher by the school board appointed non-affiliated collection assistant to ensure that the information remains anonymous. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">There are multiple types of analysis proposed for this study. To provide a better picture of the sample, the descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, and central tendency) will be provided for each class, instructor, grade level, district, and the entire sample. Similarly, t-tests will be applied to the groups at these levels, comparing the treatment group using the flipped classroom model to the control group using the traditional model. T-tests will also be performed to determine the relationship between the amount of extra credit turned in and the grades of the students in both the traditional and flipped classroom models. ANOVA tests will also be performed, splitting the treatment group into thirds by their level of availability of technology outside of the classroom, and compare them based on their grades in the flipped classroom and traditional classroom models. Linear regression tests will be performed on some of these groups as well, specifically focusing on comparing grades/class averages with the opinions on the systems for students and instructors, accessibility of technology to grades in the flipped classroom groups, and accessibility of technology outside of the classroom with the students’ opinions of the flipped classroom experience. A series of chi squared tests will also be performed at the .05 significance level to determine the connection between grades in both teaching models and each of the following; the digital divide, opinions of instructors or students, and extra credit. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> The results of this research, at first glance, seem obvious. Because the Flipped Classroom model heavily relies on students having access to technology outside of the classroom, the digital divide would seem to cause difficulties for any students who do not have computers or the internet at home. However, it is not this simple. Though the digital divide exists, computers and the internet in the home environment are becoming increasingly common, reducing the impact of the digital divide. The students who don’t have access at home could gain access through other places, such as a public library or friend’s house, as well. With all the possibilities for accessing the materials outside of school, it is difficult to say whether or not the digital divide will actually have a significant impact on the adoption of the flipped classroom method.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Problem Statement **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Research Question **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Literature Review **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Research Design **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Participants **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Intervention and Procedure **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Data Collection **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Data Analysis **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Results Prediction **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">References

Bush, D. (2011, September 18). What is a flipped classroom? [Web log message]. Retrieved from []
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bush, D. (2011, September 25). The first week – struggle and success. [Web log message]. Retrieved from [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bush, D. (2011, November 26). Parent Feedback. [Web log message]. Retrieved from [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bush, D. (2011, November 26). Survey Says…. [Web log message]. Retrieved from []

Bush, D. (2012, March 4). For all you dataheads :-). [Web log message]. Retrieved from []
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Crawford, S. P. (2011, December 3). The new digital divide. //New York Times//. Retrieved from [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Dickard, N., & Schneider, D. (2002, July 1). //The digital divide: Where we are//. Retrieved from [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Faulkner, C. (2011, June 21). The flipped classroom. [Web log message]. Retrieved from [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Gerstein, J. (2011, June 13). //The flipped classroom model: A full picture//. Retrieved from [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">O’Connor, K., Goldberg, A., Russell, M., Bebell, D., & O’Dwyer, L. (2004, May) //Teachers’ beliefs about access, use, support, and obstacles in using instructional technology.// Boston, MA: Boston College, Technology and Assessment Study Collaborative. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Russell, M., O’Brien, E., Bebell, D., & O’Dwyer, L. (2003, January) //Students’ Beliefs, Access, and Use of Computers in School and at Home.// Boston, MA: Boston College, Technology and Assessment Study Collaborative.