1-1 iPads, Chromebooks, BYOD, low tech or not tech. It doesn’t matter. If you are not using interactive videos with your students, they probably are not paying attention. Here is how Edpuzzle was able to solve this problem for me.
My Puzzle Pieced Introduction To Edpuzzle
I am heading into my 10th year teaching and have had the opportunity to work in a number of schools teaching science from 6th-12th grade. The majority of my experience comes from the wonderful 5 years I had with the Lexington School District One in Lexington, South Carolina teaching Middle School Science. Recently, I moved to Canada with my husband and our family and have since joined the Ottawa Catholic School Board teaching science to grades 9-11 the past two years.
It was during my fourth year of teaching, in South Carolina, that I started to dip my toes in the flipped class model which I learned about through a webinar I participated in during the summer of 2010. Originally I made my own videos with Camtasia which I learned about through Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams (leaders in the Flipped Class model).
Fast forward a few years and the school district I was working in adopted 1-to-1 iPads. for So I started to record my “lectures” with the Explain Everything iPad app. It was then In the summer of 2014, when I virtually attended FlipCon and learned about a tool called EdPuzzle which I thought had some great features to bring my videos to the next level.
Since making the switch to the flipped class model, I knew I would never go back to traditional lecturing but, over the years I found that my students were not always sure what to write down for their notes and were sometimes just passively watching the videos. Implementing Edpuzzle solved these problems and after I started using EdPuzzle, I immediately fell in love with it!
Why Edpuzzle Just Worked
I found Edpuzzle did NOT have a steep learning curve, and was quite easy to use. Some of the features I love with EdPuzzle are:
- You can upload your own videos or find videos off of a number of sites such as YouTube, Khan Academy, Crash Course and TedTalks just to name a few.
- You can then crop the video to capture only the material you want. Once you have your video selected you can insert images, text, and multiple choice/short answer questions.
- Feedback can automatically be given with multiple-choice questions.
- To save time you can even browse the EdPuzzle Library to start with one that was already created by another teacher and modify it to make it your own.
- Lastly, you can input audio notes and even a voiceover for the entire clip using your voice if you choose.
Advice For Using Edpuzzle With Students
Here are a few options for when you use Edpuzzle with students.
1-1 Technology
First, you can have them sign up on EdPuzzle where you create a class they are under to watch the videos and you can view their progress and see the results to any questions you asked. I think this way works best if you have 1-to-1 technology.
Sharing Devices / Small Groups
The second option which I made the move to recently works better if students are sharing devices and working in small groups. This way I do NOT have students sign up on EdPuzzle and instead post the EdPuzzle on my GoFormative page in which my students then view the EdPuzzle as a guest. This is currently how students obtain any lecture notes in my class, and any questions I include are for a self-check for my students only and are not something that I keep track of. There are other tools I use for formative assessments during class, such as GoFormative, but that would have to be a post for another day!
In all, I highly recommend EdPuzzle if you are looking to take your video lectures to another level.
Question: How do you keep your students engaged when showing them video clips? Let us know in the comments below!