It's been a couple of years now but I still remember when one of my colleagues came in literally raving about a new website she'd found and was using on what seemed like a daily basis. Edpuzzle is a free service that allows you to take videos from all over the web (Khan Academy, National Geographic and YouTube just to name a few) and add voice overs, comments and quiz questions before assigning them to your students (you can also edit and use video lessons created by other teachers). Did I mention that this is free?? It's even linked with Google and Google Classroom for easy sign-in, organization and assigning of videos! I was skeptical at first but one day I had a big data project thrown in my lap that had a deadline of yesterday. I needed some quiet work time but still needed to engage my classroom full of middle school students in something worthwhile. I decided to try this Edpuzzle thing that I'd been hearing so much about. In a matter of minutes (I did it on my lunch break so you know it didn't take long) I had signed up, started a class, searched for, chosen, edited and assigned my first video lesson/quiz. I linked the assignment to my Google Classroom and literally ran down the hall to pick my class up at the cafeteria. The kids came back, signed in Google Classroom, clicked the provided link and away they went. It took them all of .02 seconds to figure out how to play the video and less than half a second to figure out how to submit their answers. Before long everyone was quietly working and the only sounds I heard were chuckles at some of the video antics. When the students finished I was able to quickly check their score and even go into their accounts for a question-by-question breakdown of their responses, including how many times they watched and rewatched certain video sections. From that day on I was absolutely sold on Edpuzzle. I use it to reinforce all kinds of skills in all subjects and have even used it as an assessment tool. The students love getting to watch videos (How often do your students cheer when they hear an assignment? Yeah, it really happened--more than once with EdPuzzle.) and the on-line format helps them become more comfortable with answering questions and interacting with digital information. I love that it gives me individualized results that are fast and easy to use, allows students to move at their own pace and how engaged the students are when working on a lesson (ie: they are quiet for at least five straight minutes!). I highly recommend that if you've never tried it you check out EdPuzzle and see for yourself how easy and beneficial this FREE sight is for your class!
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AuthorI've been teaching since 2000 and love what I do! Archives
May 2018
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