How to Help Your Students Contribute in Online Learning Using Their Voices!

Many teachers have reported that their students struggle to engage in video-calls when learning remotely / online.

Young people and video-conferencing - some issues

Whilst some students enjoy participating in online discussions when learning remotely, others struggle. There are various reasons for this, ranging from the personal (e.g. feeling self-conscious, struggling to find a space at home without other people in) to the technological (e.g. poor internet connections making streaming difficult). Furthermore, many teachers have had to "mute" their students because of disruption / distraction and general noise and interference on the screen.

However, it's important that young people continue to develop their skills of oracy and presentation, and be able to discuss ideas verbally.

A possible solution - FlipGrid

I've come across FlipGrid - it appears relatively simple to use, and, importantly, is free. In simple terms, the teacher creates a question or a topic for discussion and shares it with their students. Students then produce a short 2/3 minute video response to the question using the tools in Flipgrid, where they can add emojis and text to their video response. The video responses are then collated by Flipgrid (where teachers can remove anything inappropriate) and then shared to the class. Students can comment on each other's responses. The website suggests it integrates seamlessly with other education tools such as Microsoft Teams and Google Classroom.

You can do a short 30 minute "Learn How" webinar by following this link.

Let us know whether you give it a go and how it's gone for you!