Hello everyone!
In last weeks class for ECMP 355 we were asked to find an app or tool that we weren’t familiar with, and then to write a blog post about it.
I thought I would go with Flipgrid since it was an online tool I was just exploring. Robbi Keller and I partnered up last blog post and we used Flipgrid, I thought it was cool and this was a great opportunity to talk more about it!
Flipgrid is a cool web tool that was created and designed by the University of Minnesota LT lab. Its designed to foster students classroom conversation and discussion in a fun, encouraging and interactive way! It allows you to have a video discussion community for your classroom. Flipgrid helps your students to have a voice, and it gets them interacting and engaging with one another.
Below is a quick video of Flipgrid that I got from YouTube
Here are some strengths and weaknesses that I found using Flipgrid…
Strengths:
- There are definitely a lot of strengths when it comes to using FlipGrid. I find that the short video responses can help to push the students to plan their responses thoughtfully and speak considerately.
- Students will be very engaged by seeing and hearing their peers responses and vice versa
- Its fun and very interactive
- Great way to share ideas
- Can enhance students critical thinking skills
- I think Flipgrid can help to motivate freedom of expression and enourage creativity
- Flip grid also has a good admin system- Teacher can choose security and privacy settings accordingly. Ensuring that it is a closed community and our grid and questions are secure. (Private Community)
- There is even a moderating grid that will let you privately view videos on the admin site before they are posted to the grid. (so just ensuring that the students are staying on topic and not posting anything inappropriate)
- I also love that as an admin you can turn social links on to block the students from sharing any of their videos to social media sites. (like FB, Twitter etc.)
Weaknesses:
- Flipgrid is more for an older crowd, like high school
- Some students might not have access to a device with a camera
- Kind of wish the videos could be longer then 90 seconds
- Another weakness I found while using Flipgrid is that you are limited as to what you can do without purchasing your own classroom
As you can see, I found way more strengths then I did weaknesses while using Flipgrid. I think flipfrid is a great tool; It’s such a good way to interact and engage with your students. If all your students have access to a device with a camera I think it would be a great web tool to utilize. I would totally recumbent FLIPGRID! 🙂
Until next time!
Sky
Skylar Alexa-Raine 