Friday 6 March 2015

BYOD and Flipping

The last month has been fascinating. My class have been trialing BYOD and we have had iPads, iPhones, Android phones, Android tablets (you name it) in my classroom for all lessons.
It's had its scary moments but I think it's gone really well and I loved it - so have the students!

It really helps with flip teaching as the children who miss watching the video at home can now watch it on their device in class.

I was lucky enough to attend a course in Dubai by Jon Bergmann (http://jonbergmann.com/), the pioneer of flipped teaching, recently. He taught me lots of ways of using technology to make/share videos.

Presently, I am using Versoapp (http://versoapp.com/) to share my videos as this allows the children to watch a video which is actually on YouTube (I don't want to direct my class to YouTube) and also allows you to set tasks/questions/challenges based on the video so you can get them to interact with it.

Apart from the benefits to flip teaching, BYOD has enabled us to create lots of other exciting elements and tools to our classroom:

  • QR codes on displays
  • Children have made maths tutorial videos which are displayed in class via QR codes
  • Aurasmas on displays (www.aurasma.com) which make our displays turn into video
  • Children have made videos explaining their work - available to all through QR codes in their books.
  • I turn all my flipcharts/Powerpoints into videos and share them via Google Drive so all students can watch them again and again to revise/review
  • Children collaborate on work via Google Docs
  • Online interactive quizzes - Kahoot. Great fun and a great way to see gaps in their learning.
It's been a busy 4 weeks!