How I Use It
I use this product as a way to get my students to present their knowledge or share other information in a unique way with students in our class. Sometimes my kids get bored or tired of sharing their thoughts or sharing what they have learned through writing only, so this allows my students to share in a different way. It's also a great tool to give all my students an opportunity to have a voice and share their thoughts, especially for those students who might feel shy to raise their hand or share in front of the whole class. It also gave me an opportunity to hear from students I might have otherwise not had a chance to hear from. It's amazing how some of my shyer students can come alive in front of the camera! I have also seen the benefits of Flipgrid for my students who struggle with writing and therefore sharing their knowledge through their voice and video is a more accurate way to check for understanding.
I have used Flipgrid at the beginning of the school year. Students had the opportunity to share a little about themselves and others can watch each others videos. I used it as a way for students to creatively share what they had learned from a reading or retell what they had read. There is also a feature that allows students to give feedback or compliments to one another, so my students are learning how to give feedback to one another as well.
My Take
I like that it's so easy for students and teachers to use. It's a fairly simple product, where students can click a + sign and add their video into the collection of other videos in the class. I usually only have to teacher my students how to use FlipGrid once, because it's pretty self explanatory for most of them. Teachers can also create a new Grid and add pictures and notes for students and easy to set this all up. There are also cute background and emoji options, which I know my students love to play around with and allows them to more creatively express their thoughts and knowledge. I also like that students can give one another feedback, although I wish there was a way for students to give feedback through words rather than videos (maybe there is that option).
I would love to see FlipGrid create additional ways for students to share information through the video. Possibly allowing an option for students to add words as they are sharing their video. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the product!
