I'd greatly recommend it to any teacher. It can be used in a variety of scenarios but mainly for speaking activities. It can work for example as an oral exam or oral evaluation, this I make them hiding it from other students' views. I also use it to analyze and comment about videos and readings. When students start talking and liking it, it's a killer. They start asking when is the next forum going to happen. However, something I do not recommend it for is role plays or collective readings, which I have tried and it fails miserably. This is because of timing, students upload the video at different moments and it is a hot mess. However, I am fine with the first part because it works pretty well.
I'm not sure what the average user is looking for, but I can imagine a number of scenarios for which the platform offers a very flexible hosting service for a variety of users, with plenty of bells and whistles, for a reasonable costs that can protect content while offering a good interface between the publisher and their viewers.
Flipgrid allows teachers to post a question to students on how they accomplished a particular task. This is important because it shows the students process and also gives them an opportunity to teach others.
Flipgrid allows teachers to make a "mixed tape" of student responses and use it for assessment. This allows teachers to show parents and administrators whether student growth.
Flipgrid has a great feature that allows teachers to post their Flipgrids with the community. The community can reuse the questions and edit them. This allows collaboration among fellow teachers.
Not only can teachers post questions but they can also record themselves asking the question. This is great for non-readers and English Language Learners.
Flipgrid has been easy for both our students and staff to use. When there is an issue with the program, we can easily reach support, and the trouble is resolved in an extremely quick and timely manner.
Flipgrip is great for supporting educators. They provide opportunities for teachers to learn the program and become ambassadors for the program. They are also responsive to questions and concerns through many different modes. That includes online communities, email, and Facebook communities. They are eager to meet and troubleshoot with you and are also eager to meet educators at conferences and meetings.
Immediate response from a knowledgeable rep - not a tier 1 automaton reading a script. I can, and have, reached them at all hours by phone, by chat, or by email. Responses are under 24 hours and frequently less than 1. And stuff gets DONE! I see things I request in almost every monthly release.
Flipgrid is unique in its ability to allow students to create and share their own videos. I’m sure there are other ways to do this, but this is the first program that I’ve seen with these features. Students aren’t necessarily used to sharing academic videos of themselves, so it’s good practice!
I looked at Wistia. I did not like that there was no way to call them. They answered all my questions via email and several times didn't even answer the question that I asked in the email. I had to write 3 times to try and get an answer 1 question. There was not a payment interface that worked with their hosting. I would have had to go to another company. Ruduzku: they appeared to have too much of their own branding on the course pages. Other companies: took a percentage of video sales and appeared to do marketing or sent my customers to other competitors. I did not need anyone to do my marketing. I read a ton of reviews for other companies. I picked Niche Video based on a single comment from a user who said they used it at their community college. That seemed to be a model that would work well for what I wanted to do. Then I approached them and had a demo and again I saw they actually answered their phones
This product is straightforward to implement and share across our building and district. As a large district, it was not difficult to train staff and have them feel at ease implementing the program.
Our impact is operational efficiency/employee efficiency. We don't need to upload a video in Dropbox and download and review for each person, and approve, follow-up on 100+ emails. This channel helps to keep all the internal communications review process in one place.
Obviously, The channel help us with the security risk, we can't afford to let the video go out of the channel while it is in progress.
