Flipgrid and Studies Weekly
When studying a topic in Studies Weekly, you may want some discussion or even debate among your students. Currently, one of the best ways to promote that is to use Flipgrid.
Flipgrid is an app that allows you, as the teacher, to create a topic. It then allows students to respond to that topic via video. Flipgrid can be used as a web app from their site (www.flipgrid.com), or there are apps available for iOS and Android devices.
You can sign up for a Flipgrid account for free. You can join via a Google or Microsoft account. As a teacher, you can also use an email address to set up an account. Once you have set up your account, it is fairly simple to use. First, you add a group: for example, a Social Studies group to use for Studies Weekly topics. Once you have a group set up, you can add topics to that group. You can add a title, prompt, instructions, reference links, and any relevant media you’d like to use, such as a video, to each topic.
You can also adjust the settings for a topic. For example, you can choose the recording time for students (between 15 seconds to 10 minutes). You can turn on video moderation, which means a student’s video does not get added to the grid until you have reviewed and activated it. There are a variety of other settings that you can explore.
Once you have your topic set, you are given a join code to send to your students. They enter the code and then are prompted to log in. Student accounts can be set up via school-provided Google or Microsoft accounts. If those are not available to the students, you, as the teacher, can set up a student username or guest password. Once a student is logged in, they are allowed to record a response.
The students then record their videos, and soon you will have a video discussion built around your topic. So pick a favorite topic from Studies Weekly, set it up on Flipgrid, and try it out. You and your students will love the interaction.
Visit flipgrid.com to get set up, and use the help articles if you need any assistance.