Entry 3: Screencasting and Flipped Classroom Video Tools

The tools I used to test out creating a Flipped Classroom experience were EDpuzzle and Zaption. Both involve adding questions directly into the video as you're watching so that it pauses as chosen times to ask an open-ended or multiple choice question. Both also have the option of inserting teacher notes (Zaption as an image or slide and EDpuzzle as a comment), but I did not use these features. They differ in terminology - in EDpuzzle you create 'lessons' while in Zaption you create 'tours' - and user interface. EDpuzzle was much easier for me to use. Zaption was more confusing and less user-friendly in my opinion as it seemed more 'techy' and therefore intimidating. There were things to drag and drop and another place to add 'clips,' which wasn't clear to me what that was. Granted, I could have gone through the tutorial but, as a millennial, I'v never gone through any tutorial on any website and have never run into a problem so the fact that I didn't understand how to use the site clearly on my own is an indicator that it's too complicated, especially for teachers who aren't familiar or comfortable with technology in the classroom. Despite these small differences though, the final product is more or less the same and both have analytic tools to see how many students and which students have viewed the video and answered the questions. EDpuzzle has an advantage in this fact in that it shows you each students' grade (correct responses) while Zaption's analytics are more about the big picture.

In general, I wasn't a fan of either of these tools. I think they are very disruptive and break continuity in the video, making them harder to follow - which, for ESL learners is already difficult enough. I think maybe for longer videos, these tools would be okay but when the videos are only 5 or so minutes, they are too disruptive. As an alternative, questions can go at the end (like TedEd). This might be hard for long videos when there's too much information to retain but would be better, in my opinion, for short videos.

In addition, while I think these are great tools for implementing a flipped classroom for older students, but they are not relevant or appropriate for younger audiences (especially mine who are only 2 years old). The same goes for the screencast. When I created the quiz questions for my Screencast, I knew that the only way to deliver them to my students would be orally. Instead of watching a screencast at home and answering questions, with my students, I would present the presentation to them and prompt them for answers at the end. In other words, it would take the "flipped" out of "flipped classroom." Regardless of the fact that they won't be relevant to me in my teaching and final project, I think they're great tools and want to share them with my sister who is a 4th grade teacher because I think her students would really enjoy it.