Week 1: Flipgrid
In the age of selfies and snapchat, I find it a constant struggle to keep students engaged and excited about learning. One way to help combat this epidemic could be to use a similar platform in the classroom.
Flipgrid is a free video discussion platform that brings classroom discussion to a new level. Educators create a grid community and design the topics for discussion. Flipgrid allows students to record and post responses to the teacher-posed questions or topics. Teachers can then provide feedback to students and students can provide feedback to one another.
Flipgrid can be used on a computer and there is an app available for phones, which may make it a little more comfortable for students. Students can watch and hear themselves, and they’re in complete control–they can re-record themselves as many times as they want before they upload their response to the grid.
It is similar to what we are doing with our weekly blogs and comments for EDET637, but it gives students the opportunity to express themselves through short video posts. I like the idea of this platform because it empowers students, fosters creativity, and allows for all students to have their voices heard. Flipgrid is an excellent tool for teaching modern communication skills.
https://flipgrid.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCCCezGwD44
https://www.edtechteam.com/blog/2017/12/for-the-love-of-flipgrid/
http://ditchthattextbook.com/2017/06/02/catch-the-flipgrid-fever-15-ways-to-use-flipgrid-in-your-class/
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| Image Source: https://flipgrid.com/ |
Flipgrid can be used on a computer and there is an app available for phones, which may make it a little more comfortable for students. Students can watch and hear themselves, and they’re in complete control–they can re-record themselves as many times as they want before they upload their response to the grid.
 |
| Image source: https://www.edtechteam.com/blog/2017/12/for-the-love-of-flipgrid/ |
It is similar to what we are doing with our weekly blogs and comments for EDET637, but it gives students the opportunity to express themselves through short video posts. I like the idea of this platform because it empowers students, fosters creativity, and allows for all students to have their voices heard. Flipgrid is an excellent tool for teaching modern communication skills.
In addition to teaching these communication skills, Flipgrid has several other advantages. First, it allows for students to share what their thoughts without having to use up a bunch of valuable class time with presentations. According to Gretchen Egner, "by removing the 'live' audience, students still deliver their message to the entire class and can still get individual feedback (you control whether kids can respond to each other) without the loss of instructional time."
This platform enables me to put students from multiple sections together in one grid. It allows all of my students to work together and hear a wider variety of responses.
In a similar fashion, Flipgrid could be a great tool for working collaboratively with other teachers and classes. It is set up to allow you to add a "co-pilot" which gives you the ability to have two teachers on the same grid.
While researching Flipgrid, I came across this great resource for suggestions for other ways to use Flipgrid in the classroom: http://ditchthattextbook.com/2017/06/02/catch-the-flipgrid-fever-15-ways-to-use-flipgrid-in-your-class/
I do have some hesitation with using Flipgrid at the high school level. Most of my students do not like to be the center of attention when it comes to academics. They prefer to hide behind their computers and books when I am looking for students responses in the traditional classroom setting. They also despise being asked to present and have disdain towards being recorded. However, I think with a bit of coaching, this could become a great tool in my classroom.
I do have some hesitation with using Flipgrid at the high school level. Most of my students do not like to be the center of attention when it comes to academics. They prefer to hide behind their computers and books when I am looking for students responses in the traditional classroom setting. They also despise being asked to present and have disdain towards being recorded. However, I think with a bit of coaching, this could become a great tool in my classroom.
With that being said, I am excited to give it a try with my Genetics class on Monday. They will be asked to choose a current genetics article to read and reflect upon this Friday and on Monday they will be coached through the process of recording a short video of their findings to my grid.
Resources:https://flipgrid.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCCCezGwD44
https://www.edtechteam.com/blog/2017/12/for-the-love-of-flipgrid/
http://ditchthattextbook.com/2017/06/02/catch-the-flipgrid-fever-15-ways-to-use-flipgrid-in-your-class/
What a great way to connect the "selfie" phase of social media into the classroom. Scholastic has a similar feature that can be shared with parents so we have a window into the classroom. As a parent, this helps me feel better connected to what is going on in my child's day and support content conversations at home. Does flipgrid allow private sharing with parents or only educators/classmates? The collaboration piece of flipgrid is certainly bridging students for post secondary and professional applications after high school with discussion boards. I am going to ask my morning class if they would be willing to give this a try as an option to chapter reflections. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for sharing. KO EDET637
ReplyDeleteI thought that giving this option available to my students might perk some interest as they are required to do reading reflections each week, but for this group they were hesitant. Most of them said they would have great anxiety speaking in front of people even if it was recorded. Culturally, prefer to listen instead of speak. On the other hand I could see my 3rd grader and my 9th grader excited to have this option. I am keeping this in my toolbox for a future class that might be more receptive. Thanks again for sharing.
DeleteHi Katie! I tried this out with my 11th and 12th grade genetics class on Monday and most of my students were not thrilled about it. I even had a couple of them close to tears! However, we compromised and many students covered the camera and just recorded their voices. It will be a work in progress and as they get more comfortable with the idea of recording themselves, I think it will be a very valuable tool. I ended up giving them until 8pm to get their responses recorded and all of my students made it happen. It was such a "proud mom" moment to see and hear all of their videos. Despite the original push back, I will be doing it again with them in the near future.
DeleteI love the idea of being able to combine students from different classes into one grid. If I were teaching at say a high school level I think that level of collaboration for all of my students would be fabulous. I'm glad you noted that the teacher can control comments. You mentioned students not wanting to be the center of attention and I can empathize with that. I had a communications course where we had a scenario where we were part of a small band of survivors after a global incident but somehow had the ability to record a message to any other survivors/a last journal entry of sorts. I had a hard time with that too just fearing any negative comments. With the grid can the teacher organize the discussion topics in some way? So could you have a folder say on recessive genes where students post videos and then another on genetic disorders? I really like this idea and given the current obsessions with selfies this could be a great way to capture your students' interest.
ReplyDeleteYou can create multiple grids and multiple topics within each grid. So I would probably create a grid for each of my classes and then do a new topic for each discussion we were going to have. One of my colleagues uses Flipgrid with her fifth grade class and they love it! My high schoolers were pretty resistant to recording themselves at first, but in the end they all made it happen and I am looking forward to trying it again with them.
DeleteHeather, I love that you are using Flipgrid with high schoolers who are likely on social media. In my opinion, a platform like Flipgrid teaches students how to behave online in a professional setting. Nowadays, anything is acceptable when it comes to social media. Flipgrid allows students to develop a positive persona by sharing their responses with their classmates. As I was reading your post, I kept thinking about the shy students . Does Flipgrid have an anonymous option for students who want to post something but don't want their peers to know that it was them? This, of course, would only work if the responses appeared anonymous to their peers but the teacher dashboard allowed you to see the original author.
ReplyDeleteI am posting my comment as a reply to Galina's as they are tied together. I know it sounds odd, but I am one of those people who hate to be recorded. I cringe every time I go to an inservice and they ask us to use Flipgrid to post a response (there have been a few). Now I can get up in front of a room full of students or peers and talk all day long, but as soon as I know there is some kind of recording device, I know I change.
DeleteIn the world of post-Vines, Youtube, Instagram and Snapchat, I understand the appeal to some of being able to respond in a video manner. I know it will reach certain students, and allow them to flourish and express themselves in ways that a written response would not. I know there are students who can talk your ear off and thrive in front of a camera, yet take hours to formulate a simple written response. Then there are those like me, who for what ever reason, freeze up or find themselves limited when they know a camera is pointed in their direction.
So I guess it comes down to us, as educators and learning facilitators to figure out how to get the best out of our students, in a manner that they feel comfortable, yet still teach them different communications methods and give them the opportunity to practice them. I suppose this is differentiation at it's core. Now, a question posed to us all, where is a platform that allows all kinds of responses to a single prompt or question? Video, Audio, Written, Photographic, or some kind of mixture of all the above?
Hey Coby, I think Tumblr the blog platform I am using has that capability. It supports multiple response formats. Features https://www.lifewire.com/tumblr-features-for-bloggers-
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Great post. I probably should use this in our class so you all can use it to respond and post things. Good work.
ReplyDeleteHi Heather, I haven't seen this platform before so thank you for the post! I look through some video tutorials and it seems easy to get up and running ( a required feature by my standards) It also seem to integrate with other platforms like twitter. This is an interesting concept as smart new applications are popping up all the time...but is how well they play with the current one we use a determining factor? This type of collaborative classroom tool would be powerful for class rooms that are virtual and students from around the world! I agree with you on the reluctance to self video as a communication tool, I experience push back with the groups of adult learners I work with.
DeleteI might add its sometimes hard to see if you are responding to anthers comment or the main post...probably my user error:)
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