EdPuzzle and Canvas

EdPuzzle is a terrific tool. With it, you can add questions to any video found on YouTube, National Geographic or Khan Academy (to name a few). I also encourage you add the EdPuzzle Extension to the Chrome Browser.

EdPuzzle integrates directly with Canvas. EdPuzzle also will let FCS teachers use materials find and post EdPuzzles made by other FCS teachers! In time, we can create wonderfully libraries of shared material for our core classes that are taught by many of us.

If you have used EdPuzzle before, it works a bit differently that it did with Google Classroom. For EdPuzzle pushes material to Google Classroom whereas Canvas pulls in material from EdPuzzle. Here’s how:

Flipgrid – A Video Tool for the Classroom

 

Flipgrid is a video discussion platform. It couldn’t be easier for students to use as they simply click a big green + button and begin to talk. As a teacher, I can control how long their responses are supposed to be.

I used the tool this year in two similar but different ways. I have my students journal every couple of weeks usually via a blog or google docs. Instead of a written journal, a couple of times I asked students to do a video journal.

Here is one such example as this student reflects on an in-class simulation. It gets even richer as students begin discussion threads and go back and forth discussing and debating ideas. Below is a screenshot of a portion what I see as a teacher. You can see each video has its own unique shareable url. I can easily comment on any of these posts with a typed or filmed comment. You can also see that “4th wall” of teaching is partially penetrated. These kids are viewing what their classmates have to say. Blake had 11 classmates view his responses. The discussion moved beyond the classroom.

I also used it for quick status reports as my students did a month long maker-space project. Simply clicking through the video responses was a quick and easy way for me to gauge student progress.

Stacy Roshan is a Flipgrid superuser and posts quite a bit on her own blog about Flipgrid. Here are some highlights.

 

 

Find Quality Videos More Quickly

I frequently check YouTube for videos for my classes. I’ve found some gems, but I’ve also waded through some dreck.  This video shows how to use YouTube Playlists to find quality videos much more quickly, curate videos for your classes, and to use playlists in lesson plans.

Other video tips, use EdPuzzle to further edit YouTube videos. As FCS teachers, we all have the extension added to YouTube. Just click Edit with edpuzzle.

Finally, if concerned about distracting thumbnails for other videos and content, use a tool like safeyoutube.