Teaching Social Intelligence Through Healthy Use of Screens
Flip the Lens is a platform for creating powerful and meaningful content about our shared humanity. FTL is a digital social innovation initiative that offers teachers a forum for changing the world, one conversation at a time. FTL empowers teachers to differentiate their classroom by offering students a simple but powerful experience of standing in someone else’s shoes.
Flip the Lens offers a way for kids to use their digital devices and the internet that creates a sense of purpose, enables them to feel a part of something meaningful, and fosters social-emotional learning.
How? Students can film a three-question interview with the person of their choice about universal themes related to what it means to be human. Students can have a powerful experience of seeing life through someone else’s eyes, and be part of a movement to bring social media from me to we. We’ll publish their videos on Flip the Lens YouTube Channel.
Learning these days cannot be restricted to just text books. FTL presents teachers with an inter-active, experiential and digital social-emotional learning tool that is fun and deeply instructive. With Flip the Lens, teachers have a curriculum template that is relevant to a wide range of subjects–and comes with a catalytic “Wow’ factor!
FTL Teaching Modules | Purchase Individually or as Bundles
Module One | The Belonging Project
In today’s global world, we are more connected than ever before…and yet, paradoxically, many of us often feel more alone, alienated, different, and less-than. The feeling of belonging is deeply ingrained in human nature. We all belong to something, yet it is a unique experience for each one of us.
With the Flip the Lens Belonging Project, you’ll interview someone about the concept of belonging, asking three questions that are simple, and yet sure to elicit powerful and highly personal views on this universal dimension of being human.
Price: $95
Module Two | The Culture Project
Culture is both universal and personal. Culture provides ways to both express our individuality, and to see ourselves in others.
Flip the Lens invites you to explore the meaning of culture by filming someone responding to three provocative questions for The Culture Project.
Be part of a movement to contribute to peace and understanding, and minimize misunderstanding and prejudice!
Price: $95
Module Three | The Creativity Project
Explore what it means to be creative. Say the word “creativity” and people often think of painters or musicians. Creativity is a lot more than that! Creative thinking is a life skill that we all have. Conduct a three-question interview for the Creativity Project that takes a broader look at this dimension of being human.
Is there someone you know who has used imagination, ingenuity and originality to solve a problem? Or pioneered a new vision? Or create a unique piece of art?
Price: $95
Module Four | The Art of Listening
Is listening an art? If so, why? And how?
This project invites you to investigate how listening is different from hearing, and why listening is not just a passive use of our senses, but an active engagement with the world around us. With the Art of Listening, you’ll conduct a three-question interview with a subject you believe will have a compelling take on this topic. You’ll elicit insights that can help you & others understand how cultivatng the art of listening can improve daily life and society in general.
Price: $95
Module Five | What is Authenticity?
In this age of AI and influencers, we are continually faced with making choices about what we think is for real, and what we recognize is artifical and only for effect.
This Module is a springboard to step back and really consider what the characteristics are of someone or something that is authentic. With this project you will interview someone you feel will have a meaningful view on this matter. We’ll provide you with three questions that should spark thoughtful observations.
The video you create will contribute to clarity about how people can discern what is legitimate and true.
Price: $95
Module Six | What is a Changemaker?
There is a lot wrong with the world, and it can be easy to feel nothing you can do will change that. Yet there are millions of people who every day spend time trying to better some aspect of society. Why? And how? What do they learn about themselves and life in the process of seeking to improve some circumstance?
These are questions you will ask your subject for this Flip the Lens Module. Once you identify someone who you believe embodies the definition of a changemaker, you’ll film their responses…and become a changemaker yourself!
Price: $95
Educators on the FTL Experience
“Our community access station recently co-hosted a Flip the Lens summer camp. The young video creators were professionally trained to produce meaningful local content. The end result was an incredible array of thoughtfully produced digital short stories. Participants learned the skills for creating a story that elicits an emotional response from viewers. The FTL approach taught the students teamwork and the importance of empathy for others.”
Chuck Lewis
Executive Director
Valley Shore Community Television
Westbrook, CT
“We were able to explore the message/theme of Belonging, which falls in line with RAW’s mission. The children were able to open up in ways that they haven’t had the space to before which was amazing to watch. In addition, the youth were able to tap into the interview process by listening and engaging with strangers. I am glad to say that we as a group learned a lot and hope to continue partnerships like this in the future.”
Julian Gabelus
Production Manager
Real to Reel Film School, RAW Art Works
Lynn, MA
A Rich Library of Interviews About Being Human
With the more than video interviews conducted by FTL learners, “the students become the teachers”. The FTL YouTube channel offers playlists of interviews our graduates have produced about growing list of meaningful themes like Belonging, Creativity, Culture, Listening, Authenticity and Changemakers. These powerful films capture the experience, insights and wisdom of real people talking about topics of substance and importance–and ones nowhere to be seen on social media.
Flip the Lens Learning Modules Are Relevant to Wide Range of Ages and Subjects
FTL’s Social Intelligence Projects are constructed in such a way that they are accessible and actionable for students in Grades 7 – 12 as well in Higher Education
The interview topics are relevant to a cross-section of school subjects: Social Studies, Media Studies, Human Relations, SEL, Social Skills, Interpersonal Studies, Communication, Psychology, Sociology, to name a few.
FTL Licensing Options for Educators
Bring the power of Flip the Lens Social Intelligence modules into your classroom with an annual school/site license based on enrollment. One license gives your entire school access to the specific product purchased.
Whatever the size of your student body, FTL offers highly competitive rates for licensing our unique proprietary materials that are sure to differentiate your classroom.
With FTL’s first-person, proprietary learning model, students use their digital devices as a portal to genuine human connection. By conducting in-person, face-to-face interviews with real people about themes like belonging, creativity, culture, listening, authenticity and changemaking, learners practice the skill and art of human dialogue.
Our approach offers both context, inspiration, and structured exercises in human relations. We help teachers and youth engage in fun, enriching and practical skills development, with screens being a means to an end rather than the end itself.
Please contact Susan at sharrison@flipthelens.com for more details on licensing.
Schools, co-ops, tutorials, and other group-instruction programs can purchase a classroom license to copy and distribute our consumable student materials for multiple students.
Licensing fees are issued to school sites. Pricing is based on the size of the student population. Please refer to our fee schedule for pricing.
To receive a no-obligation licensing quote, please fill out this form.
Seed Concepts of Connection & Identification To Prevent Comparing & Bullying
Each student that conducts a Flip the Lens interview will experience for themselves the recognition that we are each unique–and we all share the human condition. And this lesson will be borne out as students watch the videos created by their classmates, and view the videos created by others all over the world.
By interviewing someone else about the universal themes of belonging, creativity and culture, students develop an awareness that these are all elements of being human. Understanding that we all share this common ground fosters acceptance of self and others, and reduces the stress of being “perfect”. By shifting the focus away from self and towards others, the pressure of constant comparisons that students often face is eased.
The way we feel about ourselves can be highly influenced by the way we perceive the world. One way to accept who you are is to discover that everyone around you is unique. FTL fosters an appreciation for individuality that can free students from the pressure of conformity and enhance overall mental wellbeing
How Flip the Lens Empowers Teachers & Students
Differentiate your classroom learning modules with real-time, real life lessons on empathy, belonging, and the human condition.
Flip the Lens presents a simple yet hugely impactful way for students to explore universal aspects of being human. At the same time, participants in FTL witness first-hand the uniquely personal way each individual defines and experiences the phenomenons of belonging, creativity and culture.
Conducting short interviews on important topics empowers students to discover the world of ideas and storytelling; to start exciting conversations with interesting people; to use digital devices in a way that can have real impact; and to have a piece of content they create get published on YouTube and shared with subscribers who care about the wellbeing of humanity.
A Powerful Tool to Align your Lessons with the SDGs
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Flip the Lens offers an actionable way for children to understand the meaning and importance of the SDGs–and to play a role in their implementation.
By conducting Flip the Lens interviews on the topics of belonging, creativity and culture, students are putting into practice five of the SDGs. The video interviews conducted by FTL participants are concrete contributions to positive mental health; quality education; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; and world peace. The Flip the Lens interview process is a springboard to a broader curriculum teachers may wish to build around the experience.
Flip the Lens offers an opportunity to align your teaching with the SDGs. Teach SDGs to your students and enable them to be a part of changing the world.
Empower Students With Confidence To Start Meaningful Conversations
With FTL’s way of learning, students will master their speaking skills, language skills, pronunciation, questioning/conversational skills,etc. It will help them to have authentic conversations on meaningful topics and improve their listening skills.
Give your students a chance to strengthen their people skills such as starting conversations, interacting, collaborating and help them reign a new perspective on human connection. Using simple digital techniques to film & present these short interviews will make them comfortable with one to one interactions with people.
Social Media’s Impact on the Mental Health of Students
SOURCE: EdWeek Research Center survey, January 2024
Making a Positive Impact with Digital Devices
Since its invention about 20 years ago, social media has fostered amazing individual self-expression and creativity. People love sharing where they’ve been, what they’ve done, and interesting content they’ve made or discovered. Our idea is to take that to the next level.
