Although I was aware of FlipGrid, I hadn't used it until this past week since it used to cost money. We'd had some teachers in our Tonka Online program try it out with their students and they liked it, but because of the cost we hadn't paid to allow all our teachers to have an account. A couple weeks ago right before the ISTE Conference in Chicago, FlipGrid announced that Microsoft had purchased it and was making it free for everyone (more details here). This was great news and created quite a buzz at the conference (#FlipGridFever). There were a number of sessions and mentions about FlipGrid so I learned a lot more about its many possibilities.
This past week I tried it out myself. I used FlipGrid in the online class I teach through Saint Mary's University of Minnesota with teachers who are working on their master's degree. Because the class is entirely online, I had students record a short 1-2 minute introduction of themselves to post to our class FlipGrid. All FlipGrids are password protected, so it offers a private way to build an online community. As I watched each video to learn about my students, I was able to easily and quickly record a response to each of them, welcoming them to class and asking some follow up questions. I'm really impressed with the simplicity of the tool and can see it taking off this coming school year when we show it to our teachers in Minnetonka. There is also a built in rubric feature that can be utilized. I plan to use it again in my course in a few weeks, too.
Two different sessions I attended at ISTE mentioned GridPals, including Matt Miller of Ditch that Textbook (pictured). GridPals are basically video pen pals using FlipGrid. It's a great idea and there are a lot more details about it online. Matt has additional ideas about uses for FlipGrid I'm excited to show our teachers and students in the coming year. I'm thankful to Microsoft for making this tool available for free!
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