I went down a Flipgrid rabbit hole this weekend and learned a ton. The website is really user friendly when it comes to researching different things about it. I was able to very easily find the Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy, and the links between articles could have had me reading all weekend had I wanted to. They were all really interesting though and relevant to my research.
I have received my Level 1 certification and am working on Level 2. These are basically just tutorials to read/view and are actually really helpful in getting to know the website better. I discovered the site has a blog with an enormous amount of tips, tricks, and ideas. It also has a Discovery Library where you can search for topics relevant to what you’re teaching and use them as you wish. I am a huge fan of ready-made material; why reinvent the wheel? You can also comepletely edit every aspect of the topic once you add it to one of your groups, so it’s really easy to personalize to what you are teaching. They have a feature called Gridpals where you can connect with other teachers and classrooms across the globe. This could make for a very cool penpal initiative!
I finally used the app in school today with my students. They were super excited when I told them they got to create videos. I used the “Hello, I am …” topic that is included when you make any new group and had my students make little introduction videos so they could play around with and learn the features. They had a lot of fun, but we have noticed some things that are not so great about the platform:
- In a class of however many kids, each student would need their own headphones with a mic to record a video, otherwise it would be noisy chaos. For schools that lack this technology, this could be a major problem for using this platform.
- I found that you have to refresh the page often or go out, then come back in to see new videos others have posted or even to access the group or topic.
- If you have given the class specific requirements to include in their video, once they enter the “add a response” page, they can’t go back to look at the requirements and double check.
- You can’t save video drafts. It took the kids a long time (rightfully so) to check out all the different features and add what they wanted to their posts. Some of them didn’t have time to record their videos and will have to start all over again tomorrow.
- If the technology the students are using is a bit older, the videos might not be great quality. We noticed some of our videos were laggy.
All in all though, it was a good first try and my students are already suggesting interesting ways to use the site in class. I look forward to seeing what else we come up with!
Thanks for sharing, Leah. I have used Flipgrid quite a few times with my students and I have found that the noise in the classroom while students are trying to create videos is very distracting. To help minimize this, I have started to give student roles of videographer, editor, etc. and students work in groups to help one another make their videos. I don’t love this, but it has helped to minimize the noise! I have also had students create silent videos where they have to use some other form of communication (other than talking) to show understanding and answer the given prompt.
Good luck with your next try! Looks like you have already found some great resources.
Thanks for the great tips Kate-Lynn!
I used Flipgrid a lot when we were online and kiddos really loved it. Kiddos who normally had a tricky time engaging in the classroom surprised me with what they had to say when they felt more comfortable. This was something that I have bridged into my current teaching practices, giving students more outlets to show their learning rather than a one-shoe-fits all kind of mentality. I love that you have been doing the level certifications, and I bet they are helpful. When I did my Google Level 1, there were actually a few things that I learned that surprised me. That reminds me, I should really get around to doing the second one! Thanks for sharing with us!
I used Flipgrid in my online classes. It is such an amazing and interactive platform. As Kelly mentioned, I could also notice the level of interaction among students increased and they began to find my class interesting.
Thanks for sharing!