Last year I flipped my classroom using the edpuzzle.com platform. Just a brief reminder that flipping means providing digital content (prerecorded lectures, etc) to be watched and noted outside of the class time leaving in class time for other types of activities. Edpuzzle was a great platform but didn’t quite work for the amount of content and my goal to create a digital notebook. Students had difficulty navigating the platform in order to get to the notes when reviewing. When I debriefed with students at the end of the year a majority told me they eventually gave up on looking at their notes when reviewing for tests. When I asked during the year students did not say anything about this particular issue.
Equity in internet access also emerged as an issue. While most students had access at home a significant number did not. Not only did this prevented students from getting to their notes it also prohibitited them from accessing edpuzzle to initially take notes! This was an issue that students did raise. We solved the problem by putting the digital content on a flash drive with students saving the files onto their hard drives. This solution, though, removed the digital edpuzzle notebook as an option leaving an ad hoc system of edpuzzle and physical notes.
As a result of these issues and some studies that suggest people retain more content by writing it by hand this year’s students will be keeping a physical notebook. The notebook will also act as a warm up, reflection and creative writing journal.
During the debriefing session (after students told me their frustrations with Edpuzzle) the kids and I discussed different delivery methods. The overwhelming student favorite was to simply use YouTube and the students were psyched to show me how to best utilize the site! In order to use Edpuzzle I had to upload my originally created content videos to YouTube anyways so I had a channel. My students showed me one simple trick that totally changed how they viewed the videos – PLAYLISTS!
The first step in creating a playlist is to find a video that you want to start your playlist. Underneath the video is a simple a “add to” button.
Give your playlist a Title! Then simply find another video that you want to add to the playlist. Click the “Add To” button and then select which playlist that you would like to add the video to.
Once you have added a number of videos to the playlist you can then go to the playlist itself and organize the videos in an order that you find most appropriate. Click on the name of the playlist that you would like to organize.
Once in the playlist you can drag each video up and down on the list or remove a video by just clicking on the X when you hover over the desired video.
For my “QWIQR” Content I have broken my digital content down by the Standard-Indicator and then further into short 2-3 minute videos based on smaller themes. I have also intermixed my gamified narrative into the lessons. Some students don’t want to participate in the narrative and that’s ok. Games are a voluntary activity and we are all motivated by different gamified elements. By breaking the videos down in the YouTube playlist students can skip the narrative if they would like.
You can also add playlists onto your own website! Here is what standard 1-1 looks like:
Classroom Powerups 