One of the best advantages is the students having access to my lessons anywhere and anytime they need them. Need to review? No problem! Not in class? You can still get the information! Want to take your time learning the material? Go as slowly or as quickly as you need!
When we (the fabulous Kelly Tobecksen and I) started flipping our lessons, we were challenged with how to do it. In the past, the RMHS Spanish Department has always used scaffolded notes for any grammar lessons. We knew that we wanted to use those notes as a jumping off point. Along the way, we've learned quite a few things. Here is a rundown of some of the options that we've used and found useful.
Explain Everything
This is the app that we have used primarily to create our videos. It is a paid iPad app ($2.99), but only the teacher making the video needs it. The beauty of Explain Everything is that it is a very comprehensive app and allows us to import our scaffolded notes and use them similarly to how we have in the past in the video. This video tutorial highlights some of the great features of the app.
Educreations
While I have not used this app to create any video lessons, my students have. On a number of occasions, we ask the students to make their own video explaining what they are learning at that time. Educreations is a great app because it has good features, but is simple and free. Here's a short tutorial on using Educreations.
QuickTime
I just learned about QuickTime as a video creator recently from Andrew Prazeres and Elliott Olson. These two fabulous RMHS Social Science teachers told me that QuickTime can be used not only as a means of playing videos, but also to create them. I tried it out the other day and it works! QuickTime is great because it's free (assuming it's already on your computer as it is mine) and it records everything on your screen and your voice, too. The only drawback, in my opinion, is that a laptop/desktop doesn't allow me to write on it the way an iPad does with an app like Explain Everything. While I haven't made any videos for class with it yet, I do envision myself using it. Here's a super short video of me, using QuickTime, explaining how to start making a screencast with QuickTime.
I learned about EdPuzzle at the NICE MiniCon in January. While EDPuzzle isn't used for making the videos, it is used in conjunction with the videos you've made to create some more structure. This year I teach Spanish 2 and Honors Spanish 4. We flip lessons in both levels. In Honors Spanish 4, most of the grammar concepts we cover are a review from previous years and I want the students to feel free to watch, or not watch, the videos depending on their comfort level with the material. In Spanish 2, given the younger age and the new material, I like the idea of knowing a little more about how they are watching the videos. With EDPuzzle, I can take the videos I've already created and embed checks for understanding/quizzes into them. I can also see view information on who watched the videos, the time it took them, how they answered the questions, etc. Having that information is great! This video is a great short demo of using EDPuzzle.
YouTube
All of the videos that Kelly and I create are uploaded to YouTube. Once on YouTube, we create a public playlist with all of the videos for a class. Last year when we started experimenting with this, we made our videos private. Why? I'm not totally sure. If someone else wants to watch them and learn, why not let them? Here's the link to our Spanish 2 playlist so you can see what I'm talking about.
I also want to talk about YouTube as I don't think it's always necessary to create your own materials. There are TONS of educators out there making videos. And many of them are exponentially better at it than me! As of now, we have decided to still create our own videos, but also always link students to other videos that we think could be helpful. For us, the videos of Señor Jordan are great. One of the only reasons we don't use his videos instead of ours is that his are in English and we prefer our lessons to be in Spanish. However, we link them for the students because in the end, we really want the kids to acquire the knowledge. If his videos help them, so be it!
So that's what we're doing in a nutshell. We have kept it simple so that it's educational AND still manageable for us. Also, while getting started making the videos was a little bit of work, we've now built up a great video library and more importantly, given our students access to valuable educational resources available when and where they need them.
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