What is Flipgrid?
Flipgrid is an easy-to-use social learning, video making website that allows educators and students to make video clips. A teacher can create a grid or a series of grids that asks students to discuss topics or questions. The teacher can set the requirements of the responses to the subject, which could include time limits, attachments, video, pictures, and several other settings.
The students log into the website, go to the assigned grid to watch the video, and then respond to the posting with their video. The responses can be a video of the student speaking or using text. The reactions can include video, text, stickers, emojis, drawings, or a custom created sticker.
What are the Benefits of Flipgrid?
People of all ages are afraid of public speaking or being called on to answer a question. Allowing students to answer questions without standing in front of the class could lead them to be more active participants. They will ask and answer questions more freely.
Students who suffer from anxiety when facing the prospect of speaking in public or in front of a class can formulate a response that they are comfortable with before submitting. Unlike speaking in front of the class with one shot at getting it right, the student can record and re-record their message until the final product is what they desire. The teacher can set an expectation for the students that the video does not have to be Hollywood quality.
As students practice speaking on camera, with positive feedback and constructive criticism, they will become more comfortable making their videos. This activity can translate into the student becoming more comfortable speaking in front of groups.
Teachers can benefit from having their students use Flipgrid as well. With the responses being video-based, the teacher can assess the answers at their convenience. They can watch the video repeatedly to find ways to assist the student without needing the student to repeat themselves in front of their peers.
Students of the technology age enjoy using applications in their learning environment. If a teacher integrates recording responses and as well as responding to other students, then the students will become more active learners. By integrating Flipgrid into the curriculum, they have the potential to have disengaged students in a topic more involved.
Flipgrid gives all of the teacher’s students a voice. Perhaps the best benefit of Flipgrid is that it is free to both the educator and the student.
How to Use Flipgrid in the Classroom
Flipgrid is a versatile tool that can be used by teachers of every subject and every grade level. Check out some examples below.
- A fourth-grade math teacher can post a question asking their students to demonstrate or explain a problem. Not only would the teacher be able to give individual video feedback to the students, but the students could help each other.
- A freshmen English teacher could post a discussion about Romeo and Juliet, asking students to “act” out their favorite part of the story. The students can get creative with their responses. They could work in pairs with one student playing Romeo and another playing Juliet.
- As a student in middle school in the 80s, we wrote letters to our English teacher’s sisters’ class. By using Flipgrid, the same exercise could be done, except with videos instead of handwritten notes. A French teacher could do the same, except with an English teacher in France. The students could have immersive conversations with native speaking students.
- A forensic science teacher could have students use Flipgrid to document what they see at a “crime scene,” data collection, predictions on causes, followed up with a resolution statement.
- A teacher can assign a video response to a problem along with a requirement to respond to at least two other students. This exercise can lead to further and more in-depth discussions on a topic than the time allotted in the standard class.
With the AR feature of Flipgrid, a teacher can take the videos of students into QR codes. Other students or parents can download the application, scan the code, and watch the video come to life.
