Week 8: Mobile Apps For Language Learning

Flipgrid - Your Voice Your Story!

[Source: Flipgrid's logo from Flipgrid.com]

Hello and welcome back to my ICT in TESOL blog! I hope you enjoyed reading my previous entry on ‘Blendspace’ (if you haven’t then please do so – you will thank me for it!). If you are like me right now - stuck at home because you are trying to avoid crowded places since you are worried about the massive outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and you don’t have anything good to watch on Netflix, then why not spend some of your time to read this post on Flipgrid? Who knows, perhaps by the time you have finished reading this post, you might even want to create your very own Flipgrid video too!

The story of Flipgrid is the story of YOU!  

[A screenshot of Flipgrid website homepage]

 What is Flipgrid?

Flipgrid is a web-based platform that can be used by both teachers and students to create  a video-based discussion on a topic or 'grid' of their choice. In line with its slogan ‘EMPOWER EVERY VOICE’, Flipgrid allows its users to record, upload, and share short awesome videos among its community. The idea behind it is to get our students to record themselves talking about a topic they are interested in and upload the video for others to watch and respond by uploading their own reply videos, thus creating a thread of discussion about the topic of the video.

Listen to these amazing stories from some teachers who are already using Flipgrid in their lessons with their learners 👨🏻‍🏫 👦🏾 👦🏻 👧🏿 📚

[Source:YouTube - 'Flipgrid: The Power of Student Voice]

How can I use it for language learning?

As language teachers/educators, I think Flipgrid is an excellent tool that allows your students the much-needed opportunity to use the language and encourage communication with others in a safe and controlled environment. Here are two of my own ideas on how you can use Flipgrid in your lesson with your learners:

 §  Speaking activity

You can choose an interesting topic for your students to think and reflect on before asking them to talk about it. Alternatively, you could also make your lesson very student-centred by giving them the autonomy to choose their own topic for discussion. Students will feel empowered and more motivated to participate since they are in charge of the task instead of the teacher.

For the purpose of this blog, I have created my very own Flipgrid video on the topic of 'My Favourite ICT tool in ELT'. Check it out!

I had so much fun creating my first Flipgrid video discussion.😊 📹 📱

Please post a 1 min-clip of yourselves talking and don't forget to enter the password ICTINTESOLKAMAL2020 in order to log in. I look forward to hear from you!

§  Reflective tool

Another interesting use of Flipgrid in my opinion would be as a reflective tool. You could ask your learners to create a video and talk about what they have learnt when they leave the classroom or by the end of the course that you are teaching. If everyone does it, you would have a wonderful collection of personal stories from your students that showcase their personal growth and experience as language learners.

If you are looking for some inspiration and are interested to read more on Flipgrid, here is a very insightful article by Karly Moura from DitchThatTextbook.com on 30+ ways to use Flipgrid in your class.

More tips on how you can use Flipgrid as an online learning tool from its official website.

Strengths

As a language teacher, these are some of the reasons why I have fallen in love with Flipgrid as an online learning tool:

§  Easy, simple and user-friendly

Flipgrid is such a simple and intuitive learning tool for everyone to use. Whether you are an educator or a student, getting started with using Flipgrid is as easy as 123. The first thing that you need to do is to sign up using your Microsoft or Google account and just follow the 3 simple steps below to get started:

Get started with using Flipgrid in just 3 SIMPLE STEPS! 😊

 §  It is FUN!

Having watched some Flipgrid videos online and trying it out for myself, I have to say that it is such a fun and engaging learning tool. You can draw on your pictures, use cute and attractive emojis with some colourful filters that you can choose from to make your pictures and videos interesting! This particular feature of Flipgrid reminds me of similar facets that popular social media such as Instagram or TikTok have and I think it is a brilliant strategy by its developer as a unique selling point to attract and motivate young learners, teenagers and college students to use Flipgrid in their learning.

§  Interactive and collaborative learning

According to Garrison (1993, p.17), an important aspect of educational transaction is to have a two-way communication because it has the potential to create:

 “a collaborative respectful interdependence where the student takes responsibility for personal meaning as well as creating mutual understanding in a learning community. The transaction between teacher and student is characterised by a critical dialogue to understand current knowledge and to encourage the development of new perspectives” (Garrison, 1993, p.17).

One of Flipgrid's greatest affordances is that it enables users to collaborate with each other by acting as an online platform for discussion. Similar to Twitter, I think Flipgrid has an element of social media interactivity that encourages people to comment and share their opinions or ideas on what others have to say in their videos. Learners get to choose and watch videos on grids that they are interested in. Not only that they get to watch other people’s videos but they can also participate and voice out their response by recording their own videos and uploading them online. It is a very interactive and engaging experience since you are watching a video on a topic that you are passionate about with others in the Flipgrid community that share a similar interest with you and being able to interact with each other.

 §  A free, powerful and versatile tool

In addition to the amazing fact that Flipgrid is a FREE online learning tool, another salient feature of Flipgrid that makes it such a powerful platform for learning is due to its flexible nature that allows it to work with other online learning resources to make your lessons more engaging to your students. Check out some of the other online learning platforms that you can embed in your Flipgrid lesson – neat right?

You can use Flipgrid with other online resources to make your lesson more engaging for your learners - awesome right!

Limitations

To be honest, I cannot really think of any strong reasons to dislike the use of Flipgrid in my lesson but I think perhaps there are two main issues that as teachers, we should bear in mind when it comes to using Flipgrid in our lesson:

 §  Facility and equipment

Unfortunately, Flipgrid is not designed to be used for teaching in a low-resource context. As teachers, we have to think about important issues such as whether all of our learners have access to good internet connection and suitable devices such as smartphone, tablet or laptop to be able to use Flipgrid to record their own video and upload it online. Ideally, they should also be tech-literate or at least possess some basic skills in using a browser to search for information online, as well as recording and editing videos.

 §  Language anxiety and confidence issue?

Watching someone else’s video can be fun but when it is you who are the one under the spotlight and having to talk and record yourself in a video, it might not necessarily be an exciting and thrilling idea to some of our learners. Speaking can be quite a challenging task for lower-level learners especially if they are learning it as their second or foreign language. On top of that, they now have the added burden of having to record themselves and share the video for others to watch and scrutinise their spoken language – quite an intimidating experience I would say! As a suggestion, I think it would be nice to be able to have the feature to comment by text on each other’s video as it might encourage some students who are shy or introvert to share their thoughts and opinion instead of just watching it as a silent viewer.

Concluding remarks:

Overall, I think Flipgrid is a great online learning tool for teachers/educators to use in their lessons especially when it comes to speaking activity or getting our learners to communicate and have interactive and collaborative discussion among themselves. In addition to that, they will also gain valuable new skills such as video recording and editing as well as a great sense of accomplishment and ownership for creating their own materials. Teacher educators and teachers can also use Flipgrid for their own professional development. They can use it as a reflective tool and talk about their own teaching experience, as a safe space to discuss any issues or problems relating to their work as teachers, or simply just as a cool platform to share new teaching ideas with others.

But don't take my words for it, 

check it out and try it for yourself! 😊 📹 📱

[Source: YouTube - 'Getting started with Flipgrid']

 A big thank you!

Finally, I would like to say thank you to all of you who have spent your precious time to read my blog. I truly appreciate all of the wonderful comments that you have given me. I have made some wonderful new friends in this course and I cherish all the precious moments that we shared as blogging buddies. Last but not the least, a special thank you to my lovely tutors – Tilly and Andy who were very enthusiastic and supportive in teaching and sharing their insightful knowledge on how to incorporate the use of ICT in TESOL. I promise that I would do my best to spread the knowledge with others especially with teachers, educators and students in Malaysia. I hope to continue writing in my blog as a teacher blogger and share my reviews about other interesting online digital tools or softwares that are available for ELT practitioners like myself to use in our lessons. Thank you and stay tuned for more interesting posts from me in the future!

Some lovely photos of myself with my friends and tutor from the ICT in TESOL course.
Yes, we do get free delicious cakes and cookies in this module! 😊💕

Best wishes,

Kamal

 References:

Garrison, D.R. (1993). Quality and access in distance education: theoretical considerations. In Keegan, D. (Ed.), Theory and practice of distance education, (pp.9 -21). Routledge.