Hello people of the Internet! Today I am going to review a free online website called EDpuzzle (edpuzzle.com). This website allows teachers to customize online videos from various sources such as YouTube, Khan Academy, and TED Talks. There are other video sources to choose from, I just listed the video sources that were the most familiar to me. The options for customizing the video range from trimming the video to show exactly what you want the students to focus on, to creating voice notes that you have recorded to further explain a concept given in the video. This website would be very beneficial to the flipped classroom or blended classroom. A flipped classroom is where students watch a given lesson on their own time and devote their class time to projects, exercises and discussions ("EDUCAUSE", 2012). A blended classroom is when online learning is combined with classroom learning, allowing students the ability to control their pace, time and place of learning. ("The Basics of Blended Instruction", 2013) As a "specialist" teacher in the elementary I have not ventured into the flipped classroom model, yet. I am much more familiar with the blended learning, as integrating technology is a very important part of all of my lessons.
Aside from editing videos, EDpuzzle also gives the option to create questions that go along with the video as it is playing. These questions can ensure that students are understanding certain points and allows students to monitor their own understanding of the lesson. If a question is not the way you choose to hammer a point home, EDpuzzle also gives the written comment option. Since my school computers do not have microphones, it is easier for me to comment on a point through writing than the voice notes that I mentioned above.
Now that you have an overview of the website, I am going to show and tell of my experience of developing a lesson for my class. I have chosen second grade, as we just finished a unit on creative careers, hopefully I can share that lesson with you in the future!
The lesson I chose to teach comes from the Ohio New Learning Science Standards with a focus on the life science topic, "Interactions Within Habitats: Living Things Cause Changes on Earth". The students will make composting bins as a group with live worms. To better understand what worms need to survive and how they impact the environment, the students will watch an introductory video created using EDpuzzle.
When you first go to https://edpuzzle.com/ you will be brought to the starting page that will look like the picture below:
Once a login has been created a tutorial on how to make your first video comes up. It gives a step-by-step process that is at your own pace. It also allows you to test out each step before moving on to the next one. Being a kinesthetic learner I really appreciated this teaching approach.
Back to my lesson. Last year to teach this lesson I used a really cool TED-Ed video called "Vermicomposting: How worms can reduce our waste - Matthew Ross". I wanted to use this video again and thought that I would try out EDpuzzle with it. Below you can view my lesson creation.
While exploring the EDpuzzle site, I stumbled upon their "Gradebook" option that allows a teacher to use the questions given during the lesson as an assessment. Check out the quick video from the EDpuzzle YouTube channel for more information. Unfortunately this is a paid feature, but they do say you can get it for free if you have a seminar for teachers at your school. I haven't tried that out yet, but I am looking into it.
EDUCAUSE [Advertisement]. (2012, February). Retrieved March 2, 2017, from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf
A. (2013, March). The Basics of Blended Instruction. Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar13/vol70/num06/The-Basics-of-Blended-Instruction.aspx
Aside from editing videos, EDpuzzle also gives the option to create questions that go along with the video as it is playing. These questions can ensure that students are understanding certain points and allows students to monitor their own understanding of the lesson. If a question is not the way you choose to hammer a point home, EDpuzzle also gives the written comment option. Since my school computers do not have microphones, it is easier for me to comment on a point through writing than the voice notes that I mentioned above.
Now that you have an overview of the website, I am going to show and tell of my experience of developing a lesson for my class. I have chosen second grade, as we just finished a unit on creative careers, hopefully I can share that lesson with you in the future!
The lesson I chose to teach comes from the Ohio New Learning Science Standards with a focus on the life science topic, "Interactions Within Habitats: Living Things Cause Changes on Earth". The students will make composting bins as a group with live worms. To better understand what worms need to survive and how they impact the environment, the students will watch an introductory video created using EDpuzzle.
When you first go to https://edpuzzle.com/ you will be brought to the starting page that will look like the picture below:
Creating a teacher account is really easy and free! If you use Google Classroom, connect your school Google account. It was so amazing to me that it imported all of my classes, allowing me to easily share my lessons with my students. You can also create a lesson directly in the class folder. I tested out the student option. It seemed really easy too, it is also free! I used the google option to immediately sign me up, which for elementary students would probably be the easiest. It asks you to join a class, I'm not sure whether or not you will automatically be put into the Google classroom on the site or not.
Once a login has been created a tutorial on how to make your first video comes up. It gives a step-by-step process that is at your own pace. It also allows you to test out each step before moving on to the next one. Being a kinesthetic learner I really appreciated this teaching approach.
Back to my lesson. Last year to teach this lesson I used a really cool TED-Ed video called "Vermicomposting: How worms can reduce our waste - Matthew Ross". I wanted to use this video again and thought that I would try out EDpuzzle with it. Below you can view my lesson creation.
While exploring the EDpuzzle site, I stumbled upon their "Gradebook" option that allows a teacher to use the questions given during the lesson as an assessment. Check out the quick video from the EDpuzzle YouTube channel for more information. Unfortunately this is a paid feature, but they do say you can get it for free if you have a seminar for teachers at your school. I haven't tried that out yet, but I am looking into it.
I have really enjoyed using this website. I feel that there are many lessons that I can create for the students in my STEAM classroom. EDpuzzle is a great tool for teachers to create videos, but students can use it too! In the classroom section of the site, you can assign a project. The assignment screen is as appears below:
The teacher gives the subject, goal of the project, and instructions. The students do the rest using the site. I am looking forward to using this with my older students in the future. I think my fifth graders would really enjoy it, especially as they get the "middle school itch" during the fourth nine weeks.
If you have experience using this website and have had some really great lessons. Please let me know, I love learning what others have come up with. As I get more familiar with this website, I will update you. I hope you try it out if you haven't yet! I would love to hear your experience, leave me a comment below. 😊
EDUCAUSE [Advertisement]. (2012, February). Retrieved March 2, 2017, from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf
A. (2013, March). The Basics of Blended Instruction. Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar13/vol70/num06/The-Basics-of-Blended-Instruction.aspx
The feature that I liked in this technology is allowing students to assess their comprehension of the content while watching the video. From the teacher perspective, Ed puzzle allows the teacher to have an overview of his students' project.
ReplyDeleteReally a cool tool! I've used Articulate Storyline which costs thousands of dollars and does many of the same things with embedded questions within a video. This tool appears to be well integrated and easy to use - two of my favorites :-)
ReplyDelete