Flipgrid is a free tool that uses the power of storytelling, social media, and technology to bring learners together to engage in powerful conversations about what they are learning. Teachers develop “grids” where they can post prompts for students who respond via a video recoding using a web browser or phone.

 

Flipgrid How To

Once you create your free user account, you can begin creating opportunities for active, social learning within your classroom.

Step 1: Create a Grid

Grids are sort of like home base for your classroom or class period. So, if you are teaching high school English 10, you might create a Grid for each class: English 10 Block I, English 10 Block II. Or if you are in a self-contained elementary classroom, you might just have one Grid, such as Mrs. Barnaby’s Super 4th Graders. Within the Grid, you can post as many discussions as your heart desires.

Step 2: Add Topics

Within each Grid, you add specific topics. The Flipgrid Getting Started Guide refers to topics as the “stimulus for conversation.” Within the topic, you can ask students to record a video response to your prompt or question as well as upload videos, links, images, GIFs, emojis, and references. For example, in your English 10 classroom, you just finished reading several chapters in To Kill a Mockingbird. You might post the following question and have your students respond via video recording: How does Boo Radley change over the course of these chapters and how does this change impact the events that follow? Or, within your elementary classroom you might be studying the life cycle of butterflies and you want your students to explain metamorphosis in their own language via video recording.

Step 3: Share the Grid and Collect Videos from Students

You can share your Grid and the topic with your students several ways: through your Google classroom, Microsoft Teams, Schoology, with a QR code, through the Remind app, or by giving students the code to type on the Flipgrid webpage. Here is a great Quick Start video to share with your students created by Abbey Thomas.

Ideas for Using Flipgrid in the Classroom

The ideas for using Flipgrid in the classroom are endless. From digital book sharing to virtual vocabulary word walls, teacher, Karly Moura shares 30 ways to use Flipgrid in the classroom on her blog. You can also check out The Educator’s Guide to FlipGrid written by Sean Fahey, Karly Moura & Jennifer Saarinen.

This history teacher uses Flipgrid to deeper students understanding about what they are learning, gets them to engage in civic discourse about current and past historic events, and has them use their creativity to take on different perspectives.