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| Working with a classmate to create a video response. |
Week 1 of 2 Under our Belts
This post is being written while I am half way through a two-week journey in my 5th grade library WIN (enrichment) class. I have used Flipgrid with students before, but the Explorer Series, offered by Flipgrid, has leveraged their app, provided an expert and a way to interact asynchronously. It looked like a great thing to try and I am willing to try anything once. Students embraced this and were so excited to post their own video questions and comments, and then to see their questions answered the following day. To explain, it might be easier to describe the process we used as we began our adventure.
Day 1: This day was my first day with students so we all introduced ourselves. Then I displayed the actual Flipgrid/Sharks page with question and answer portions onto the display in the library. I read the background information on Jonathan, the shark expert, and described Flipgrid. Some of the students were familiar with Flipgrid from their Library Tech. class or from their classroom teachers and that helped guide the discussion for those who were unfamiliar. When students were asked if they would be interested in going on this exploration, they were good with it. Using their Chromebooks and/or a few Ipads, students were able to easily get onto the shark Flipgrid. They watched questions and responses from students who had already posted, spread out a bit, many worked with friends and partners, and they recorded and posted themselves asking questions. They researched a little to create a response to the question.
Questions for pre-week and week one were
What is the coolest thing about sharks?
What’s something interesting about sharks that most people don’t know?
These questions are all safe and easy to answer, which makes them non-threatening for students to participate. In addition the various videos provided for students to watch are high interest and provide factual knowledge that helps boost their knowledge base and increase the quality of the responses students are able to provide.
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| Watching shark videos |
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| Students figured out how to search the grid. That made it easier for them to find their posts and replies. |
Day 2: Students came into the library and immediately went to Flipgrid and looked for the questions they had posted. They were so amazed that Jonathan had provided a video response to each of their questions. I cannot understate how much excitement that created. Students who had been reluctant to video themselves were motivated to post their own video. Since there were videos in the teacher information page - Sharks Hyper Doc - I posted links to those videos in my Google Classroom. Students were able to select one (or more) to see if they learned anything else about sharks that would allow them to contribute to the video responses to the question of the week. One of the videos was a 360 degree video. Students who watched the videos on the IPads were able to moved around in a semi-virtual reality experience.
As students manipulated the IPads to view the 360 degree video, I went and grabbed my cheap pair of VR goggles. (really, they were $10 at a home supply store). I pulled the Hammerhead Shark up on my phone, inserted it into the VR set and showed the view to one student. As the first student started walking around and talking about what she saw, the whole VR experience became something each student wanted to experience. We quickly created a waiting list for students to have a chance to experience the video with the VR headset. Students began following each other around and laughing together when someone jumped because they turned around and a shark was right there. They also walked them around to make sure they did not bump into anything.
Day 3
Students today had a choice of four videos. Students could choose to watch one or all. Some students were creating video responses, some were exploring the VR 360 video, while others watched all of the videos. Everyone was participating while also doing their own thing.
Day 4
This day students checked their posts and watched other student videos. I felt like I was stretching the activity out a bit when I discovered that I completely missed this portion of the Explorer Series: Swimming with Sharks This series stated it would have daily videos of Jonathan conducting his research but I somehow did not notice this additional link where daily video posts were shared and I cannot wait to share them with my class as we begin week 2. It also welcomes ideas for content he could air on upcoming days. If I were to do this again, I would start with this Flipgrid page each day introducing the new video for discussion each day.
This day students checked their posts and watched other student videos. I felt like I was stretching the activity out a bit when I discovered that I completely missed this portion of the Explorer Series: Swimming with Sharks This series stated it would have daily videos of Jonathan conducting his research but I somehow did not notice this additional link where daily video posts were shared and I cannot wait to share them with my class as we begin week 2. It also welcomes ideas for content he could air on upcoming days. If I were to do this again, I would start with this Flipgrid page each day introducing the new video for discussion each day.
Now on to week 2 where the guiding question is Why are scientists important?
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| Follow this link to the Flipgrid Explorer Series: Sharks http://blog.flipgrid.com/news/sharks flipgrid.com/sharks |
