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Flipgrid is arguably
the best-known video hosting and collaboration tool for education. An
instructor can set up a “grid” that hosts all their class’s videos. Then the
instructor creates “topics”—video or image discussion prompts with text
descriptions. Students then post replies to those topics as videos.
The design makes
it much easier to organize discussions around multimedia than in a learning
management system, which is designed for a purely text-based discussion. Flipgrid
prides itself on consistently improving its products based on educator
feedback, and with the recent sale to Microsoft came out with a number of
upgrades this past summer that allow for many more educational uses of the
system.
Video recording
The camera is the
heart of Flipgrid. The Flipgrid camera activates after you log in and open your
webcam to record a video. On completion of the video you are prompted to take a
selfie, which becomes the icon for your video. The original Flipgrid camera used
a simple click to start, pause, resume and stop. There was a trash can to
delete your response and start over, and there has always been the option to
add sticky notes to your screen to remind you of points you want to make in
your video. A 2018 upgrade added new features, including optimizing the video
size depending on the device and allowing users to switch between the front and
back cameras on devices with two cameras. The 2018 upgrade also added “trimming”
so you could cut the end of a video or “add more” if you remember additional
information you need on the recording. In addition, you could add a title and
attach a URL link to a video. These added features in 2018 made recording
easier for students and gave educators additional options.
The most recent summer
upgrades have souped up the camera (Figure 1). There are five new features that
appear on the right side of the screen when recording and one new feature along
the bottom, next to the record button. The new image icon next to the record
button allows you to add any existing video file (MOV, MP4, or WebM video
format) or upload any image (PNG or JPEG format) to your recording screen.
The five new
features along the right side can be turned on or off while recording:
Camera filters.
The first option is to change the camera style by using camera filters, as on
Snapchat, which lets you use colored filters and change to black and white and
pixel mode.
Add text.
The next option is to add text that allows the person recording to type
whatever they want on the screen as they record. A student might use this
option to highlight a point they are making or demonstrate a writing technique.
Add a sticker.
Another option allows students to add a sticker that provides a selection of
emojis to choose from, or you can upload any image to become a sticker on your
recording. If a student wants to share a hobby as they introduce themselves, for
instance, they can add a picture of the activity to their recording.
Write on the screen.
The next option is “inking,” which allows the student to write on the screen in
their choice of colors. Again, this option might be used to emphasize a point
or perhaps a portion of a sticker they have uploaded. For example, a student could
point out the exact location they visited on a map they upload as a sticker on
their recording.
Whiteboard.
Finally, you can now pull up a whiteboard or blackboard and talk through your
thinking behind the screen. This makes Flipgrid somewhat comparable to other
whiteboard apps, such as Explain Everything and Educreations. Using this
whiteboard feature along with uploading images as stickers allows you to
annotate documents as well as visualize the thought process for solving math
equations.
Using these same
camera features, Flipgrid added a new option on its Educator Dashboard called
“Shorts.” Shorts allows educators to create videos of no more than three
minutes to use inside or outside of Flipgrid. Once you create your shorts
video, you get a link and an embed code to place it elsewhere online, and the
buttons below the video allow you to automatically add it to Microsoft Teams,
Google Classroom, or Remind or download the video as an MP4 file. An instructor
can use these to create video trailers to post on their faculty website or
anywhere else to publicize their course or draw students into a grid or topic.
Connect to outside
content
Another feature
Flipgrid has added is its options when creating a topic. Previously, you could
add a video (uploaded, created in Flipgrid, or linked from YouTube or Vimeo); an
image; or a GIF or an emoji as the focus of your topic. This is optional in a
topic, but adding a media resource tends to engage students. There are now 14
options, with more expected soon, to vary the Flipgrid assignments you give to
students. The options are as follows:
Record a video. Using the Flipgrid camera, record a video message to your students.
Upload a video. Upload a video file in MOV, MP4, or WebM formats.
Add a video. Link to a YouTube or Vimeo video.
Upload an image. Upload a JPEG with the recommended size being 1,600 by 900 pixels, and you can crop it once it’s uploaded.
Add a GIF. Enter a Giphy URL or search for a GIF using a term, much like on the Giphy website.
Add an emoji. Choose from more than 700 emojis, including typical emoji faces, food, nature, business and transportation, sports and music, and classroom supplies.
Microsoft. Share a Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, or other Microsoft link.
Google. Add a file from Docs, Slides, Forms, and other Google links.
Kahoot! Share a link to a Kahoot! game or challenge (Kahoot is a game-based quizzing tool).
Wakelet. Share a link to a Wakelet collection with your students (Wakelet is a tool that saves, organizes, and allows sharing of articles, videos, images, tweets, and other content).
Nearpod. Add a link to a Nearpod lesson (Nearpod is a student engagement platform with interactive lessons).
Newsela. Add a Newsela link to share a customized article (Newsela is an instructional content platform for reading engagement).
Adobe Spark. Share a link to a Spark webpage, graphic, or video (Spark is a free tool that lets students easily create reports, presentations, posters, and more).
Wonderopolis. Share a link to a Wonder with your students (Wonderopolis is a website that each day shares a new wonder that encourages students to ask and answer questions about the world).
Find teaching material
A helpful feature
for getting acclimated to Flipgrid is a repository of Flipgrid topics arranged
by audience (e.g., higher ed, family, high school); subject (e.g., history,
business, digital citizenship); and goals, which are uses for the grids (e.g.,
beginning of a lesson, family involvement, introductions and icebreakers)
called the Disco or Discovery Library. The library gives instructors the
opportunity to see how others are using Flipgrid and to copy any of these
topics (without student responses) and add them to their own grid. In addition,
the library contains the explorer series, in which engineers, scientists, and
other experts share their expertise. The latest Disco Library updates allow you
to star your favorite topics to create your own personal library. You can now
easily see the list of your starred favorites in the library under Featured
Disco Playlists à
My Favs (Figure 2). In addition, the library includes programs such as Nearpod,
Skype, Wonderopolis, and Microsoft Hacking STEM. New user content is added
daily.
Accessibility
Flipgrid now has
two features to support Universal Design for Learning. Every new Flipgrid video
is now automatically captioned using Microsoft Azure, and closed captioning is always
turned on. Educators can also download the full transcript from the Educator
Admin dashboard. This feature helps all
learners, not just those with disabilities.
In addition, a
new feature called Immersive Reader is built into all Microsoft learning tools,
including Flipgrid; it incorporates techniques to improve reading and writing
for all people—especially English language learners. To use this tool, Flipgrid
users need to click the Immersive Reader icon, which looks like a book overlaid
with a speaker (Figure 3).
The Immersive
Reader tool allows readers to turn on automatic
highlighting to emphasize words or whole lines as the computer reads them
aloud; adjust the text size; and modify the spacing and color of the text. Readers can also turn on features that color-code
and label parts of speech and syllables, show a picture dictionary, adjust the
number of lines to improve focus, and translate the text into another language.
Augmented reality
Finally, one of most innovative upgrades is FlipgridAR. Everyone seems to be jumping on the augmented reality bandwagon, and Flipgrid is no exception. Every video you create in Flipgrid, including shorts, now comes with a FlipgridAR quick response (QR) code that, when scanned using the Flipgrid app, becomes augmented reality. This means that if you print out these QR codes and have students scan them with the app, they can watch the videos as part of their current environment. The video sort of floats out in front of you. My plan is to use this as part of my hybrid class, where I have asked students to introduce themselves in Flipgrid online before we meet. Then in our first face-to-face session, I’ll have each FlipgridAR QR code printed on a small sticker that students wear as name tags, and they can mingle with their phones, watching each other’s introductory videos while they meet in person.
It was a busy
summer for Flipgrid and now a hectic fall for us educators experimenting with the
new Flipgrid camera and all the exciting upgrades. Keep checking the Disco
Library, the Flipgrid blog, and #FlipgridFever on social media to discover new
ways educators are using Flipgrid around the world.