There are a couple of areas where my/our (Leah) final project has taken some strides since the last update.
Flipgrid Update
Having fully committed to exploring what Flipgrid can offer the students and myself, I have been pretty selective in how I have been using it with my students. So far, nothing overly impressive to report on, but…I checked out a couple of websites (reliability inspected) to help me navigate my way through.
Tech & Learning has been helpful in showing me the video capabilities of Flipgrid. While I am still not comfortable and confident enough in implementing this, I do think that students will be the ones to take the lead in this area – they are much more brave than I.
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning was a great place for a newbie to start. The tutorial is easy to understand and follow. I am not going to say that I was clueless entering this process, but I would rather be able to easily access instructions on how to undo my errors instead of bugging someone (Leah).
Common Sense Education‘s review of Flipgrid was just that. A pretty uninspiring read, but it definitely helped me ask some better questions in my search of what I could be doing with this tool.
A particularly interesting visit for me was TeachHUB. What I found here was not so much how to use Flipgrid, but what I could use it for.
Ditch That Textbook continues to teach me new things. I have found many useful hints, tips, tricks, ways to advance the classroom to a more modern, digital environment. Flipgrid use was more of the same.
Jill and Holly are using Flipgrid as well for their project, so they may have unknowingly let it slip that they are becoming experts and place to look at for help as well!
Lastly, Leah has been a wealth of information on this topic. So glad she is conveniently located in Moose Jaw, and even more conveniently able to visit my classroom when necessary! Thanks to Leah, I’ve learned to moderate posts, have a posting window, and even help me help students who have hit a snag in the process.
When it comes to the actual use of Flipgrid, I do not have a high volume, yet. My initial foray into this world was driven by two factors. First, I wanted to provide students with a way to submit an oral response, rather than written. Second, I wanted to use something that could record video and then I get to access to it without the hassle of sharing, or pulling from the Google drive. As I mentioned earlier, I think that if/when this tool becomes a more engrained part of the classroom, instruction or assessment, students will figure out the creative nuances and run with it. I look forward to learning from them. So far, I have only had my Grade 7 class use it for three separate things – two assessments (where I was the audience and comments were turned off) and a digital citizenship activity. For the Grade 8 class, who actually has some experience with Flipgrid thanks to Leah teaching them in Grade 5, I had them share their initial thoughts on high school selection. For the Grade 8s, it was more of an effort to get them in to the program, and a little bit of snoopiness on where they plan on going.
Prior to the digital citizenship/high school posts, Leah came into class and led the students through a digital citizenship lesson. It was a great overview of the topic for the students. I do worry though, that Grade 7 and 8 might be a little bit late for students to begin learning about digital citizenship. The students were really receptive to the presentation, and connecting a digital footprint to their future. Not in a scared sense, but maybe more enlightened about potential issues.
A personal fail during our presentation. I was slow on the trigger of a video and the C bomb got dropped, with closed-captioning on. THE C-bomb. Oops.
TikTok update coming next.
I love Ditch that Textbook and Commonsense.org. I also really like MediaSmarts, and John Spencer for more project-based learning approaches. OMG, I love your honesty at the end of your post. How did you recover from that? I remember one time when I was in school and my teacher was showing something online using the projector in computer class. Before you know it, the video loaded and a pop-up with adult content appeared. I have never seen someone move that fast to close the shutter on the projector. And that was in the ‘olden days’ too. I love how only teachers can truly appreciate our bloopers. Looking forward to hearing your recovery story :).
YIKES!! I’d rather deal with our problem than the one you described Kelly. Fortunately, it blew over pretty quick. Everyone had a little laugh and in 10 seconds we were back on track. I assure you that this is not because it is a frequently used term that students have become numb to! At least in the classroom!
Hey Bart. I too am exploring Flipgrid. I have a pretty good grasp on how to use it, but am looking for ideas on when to use it. I’ll check out the TeachHUB link you provided – thanks!
I’m sure most of your students have heard worse at home!