One of the educational technology tools I heard the most about this summer has been Flipgrid. I'd been meaning to check it out, and ISTE finally gave me the final push to sign up for a free version account. Then, as chance would have it during ISTE, Matt Frattali Periscoped Jennifer Casa-Todd's talk on her Social Leadia book (which sounds amazing), which led me to Matt's Twitter and serendipitously to Vedchat, which he founded. I jumped at the chance to try out Flipgrid from the contributor's/student's end and responded to their week 9 post about ISTE reflections, and I've also responded to their week 10 post about Educational Leadership. (You can check out the current topic by going to www.vedchat.com.) When I first got ready to record my response for week 9, I had at least 4 redos until I was okay with it. I absolutely hate being filmed! But then the Vedchat community encouraged me to not overthink my posts, to just film once, and to add my Twitter handle as my name so we could follow each other. Genius! It's hard to not be overly critical of our own responses, but we need to remind ourselves that we are our own worst critics, and other people care more about our ideas and our contributing than they do about if we stumble over a word or took too long of a pause. When I posted my own Flipgrid looking for professional development book recommendations, I was excited about how many people I got to look at my Flipgrid (almost 300 at the time I'm writing this) mainly by promoting it on Facebook librarian groups and Twitter, but I've only had 11 responses so far! This tells me that while educators are eager to use Flipgrid they are avoiding being on the recording end of things, or they feel their recording has to be perfect. They need to JUMP IN! I know it's uncomfortable, but if we don't make ourselves uncomfortable and put ourselves out there, how can we expect our students to? We must model. And I know some people worry about having their hair done or the right lighting. But that could just intimidate our students too. Let them see that you're human and that it's okay to not be perfect in their responses. I know it's uncomfortable, but if we don't make ourselves uncomfortable and put ourselves out there, how can we expect our students to? We must model.
Ease of use Flipgrid is so easy to use! You set up a free account, create a grid, and then create your first topic. On the free version you can only have one grid, but you can have limitless topics. Share your topic and let the responses roll in! When you record a response, you'll have an opportunity to redo your response if you wish, and view it if you like before submitting it with your name. I try to make sure you're in a well lit area, that I'm okay with whatever is in the background, and not talking too quietly. But I try to not overthink my appearance or response. I have a few bullet points in my head for my response before I start recording, and then I work out the rest as I go. Students can use it on an iPad or a computer, but they will need something that can record visual and audio. Not one to one? Not enough devices for the class? Maybe it could be set up as a station or checkpoint with one or a few devices. Teacher/Administrator Features and Options There are some great options for teachers on the back end of Flipgrid. For your Grid (so this would apply to ALL of your topics on that grid) you have options for password protection, sharing links, email notifications, moderation, and more. For your Topic you have options such as allowing likes, requiring an email address from responders, or freezing a topic. I also just saw that you can upload a pre-made video or YouTube video to be the topic stimulus to a topic as I was writing this post! Some Ideas for Use
2 Comments
Victoria Benitez
7/12/2017 09:27:55 am
Love love love this!!!
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Matthew J Frattali
7/12/2017 09:53:41 pm
Joyann thank you for contributing, you hit on the magic of asynchronous video, it helps people find their voice on a public stage. "Jumping With Joy" is an amazing blog title too :-)
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