The Flipped Classroom: Tools for Student & Teacher Production

Flipping your classroom, what does that mean? 

It's the idea that most direct instruction moves from whole group class time to an individual space. This allows the classroom to become a place where the teacher is allowed to take on more of a facilitator of learning roll, as opposed to a lecturer. In part, you are setting up a piece of your classroom as an asynchronous learning environment. Meaning that you can and will learn outside of the classroom: at anytime, anyplace.

A misconception about the flipped classroom is that it is dependent on the teacher making all of the content in a classroom for students to read and view. If that were the case, you would simply be recreating a digital textbook. A flipped classroom involves communication from all stakeholders involved. In other words, teachers & students are involved in the creation process of a flipped classroom.

This post will be the first in a series that will focus on tools that both students and teachers can use for a Flipped Classroom.

Production Tools

Apple Clips
iPhone & iPad App

Clips is a newer app from Apple that I think of as a cross between the camera app and iMovie. It has some editing abilities, but keeps it very simple for users of all ages to quickly produce a short video.

A great bonus for Apple Clips, is that the app does real time subtitles as you are talking! Here is a clip that I made right when I learned about this feature




Ideas for flipping your classroom with Apple Clips are:

• Sending out class announcements.
• Showcasing Student Projects
• Book Summeries
• Field Trip Highlights and Learnings

Screencastify (Free & Pay Versions)
Google Chrome Extension

Screencastify is a simple yet powerful tool that anyone can use with just a few simple clicks. As the name implies, the Chrome Extension allows students and teachers to record and voice-over anything on their computer screen. The camera function also allows recording the presenter’s face in the corner of the screen to add personality to the clip. Along with its ease to use, Screencastify automatically saves all files directly to your Google Drive automatically. The extension is free for 10 minutes of recording time per clip, with 50 clips to record per month.


Ideas for flipping your classroom with Screencastify are:

• Recording teacher lectures for students to review
• Recording student presentations
• Creating virtual tours with google maps or google earth
• Making quick tutorials for multi step procedures students may need to follow to complete a task
• Student explanations of how they solved problems

Adobe Spark (Free & Pay Versions)
Multi-device - Chrome OS & iOS Friendly

Spark has a few creative options, but let's just focus on Spark Video.

Spark video allows teachers and students to put together videos through a "PowerPoint style" format. This is a nice feature because it will allow for voice over to be recorded on each individual side, as opposed to having to do an entire recording in one take.

Spark allows users to import video clips into a project, but is not set up for recording videos straight into it. In other words if a teacher or student wanted some video slides, they would need to record them with another program or camera and import them.

Spark will save all projects into its cloud system so you can access them from multiple devices.

Explain Everything (Trial then Pay)
Multi-device - Chrome OS & iOS Friendly

Explain Everything is a recordable whiteboard that teachers can use for their classrooms. The trick on a laptop will be trying to free draw with a mouse, but if you have a touch screen device with a stylus or a Smart/Promethean Board, you may be able to use it with ease.

Explain Everything is actually much more than a whiteboard app, it allows you to import documents, videos, and more and then annotate and record on top of them. You have unlimited pages to add to your project, and each page has unlimited zooming capabilities (both in and out). You may also record page by page in your presentation and pause in the middle of your recording.

Explain Everything also has it's own cloud storage where your projects can be accessed from multiple devices.