VlogIt With Flip

In this resource, we’re going to talk about facilitating the VlogIt instructional strategy with the Flip tech tool. 

VlogIt is a strategy that can be used for synthesis, analysis, or reflection.

Working as individuals or in small groups, students create short videos to respond to a prompt.

Students can use Flip to create their response videos. Flip pairs well with VlogIt because it’s easy to use and allows students to view and comment on one another’s videos.

In the how-to section, we’ll show you a step-by-step guide on how to set up Flip for use with this strategy.

1. Go to info.flip.com and select “Log In” or “Sign Up” to create an account. Because we already have an account, we’re going to select “Log In.”

2. Sign up or log in using Microsoft, Google, or Apple for ease of use. We already created a Flip account with Google, so we are going to select “Continue with Google.”

3. Select the specific account you want to use. Typically, this will be your school account.

4. Select the "+ Group" button. This will give you the choice to join an existing group or to create a new one. If you are a new user, you will be prompted to create a group and select a group type immediately after logging in. Once you’ve created your first group, your screen will look like this the next time you go to create a group.

5. Select “Create a group.”

6. Select a group type, such as “Classroom.”

7. Select the group level, such as “High School.”

8. Select “Next” to continue.

9. Navigate to where it says, “Enter group name…” at the top. Type a name that makes sense to both you and students. We recommend a naming convention that is easy to follow and creates unique names, such as Name-Course-Hour.

10. Select a background from the options pictured below the group name. 

11. After choosing or uploading a background, select “Create.”

12. Choose a sharing option or leave it on the default setting, which allows “Anyone with the link” to access the group. You can always change these Share settings later. 

13. Select the close button (X) to exit the Share settings.

14. Once you have created your group(s), such as one for each hour, you can create topics for each group. Topics are where you can post specific prompts and where student responses will be published. To create a new topic, select the “Add topic” (+) button.

15. Navigate to where it says, “What do you want to talk about?” and type the name of your topic. In this example, students will reflect on what they’ve learned about the Great Depression, so we’ll name the topic “Great Depression.”

16. Select “Add a description” to add more details, such as your prompt or specific instructions.

17. Write your prompt and any other instructions in the “Description” field.

18. In this example, we ask students, “How did the Great Depression affect daily life in America?” After adding your description, select “Create topic.”

19. Once you’ve created your topic, you need to share it with students. To share via link, select the “Copy” button.

20. To download a QR code generated by Flip, select the QR code icon at the top. 

21. Download the QR code or display it for students to scan with their mobile devices. Select the close button (X) to exit the Share settings.

22. Your new group(s) will be listed on the left side of your screen under “+ Group.”  Select a group’s name if you want to make changes to that group or any topics within the group.

23. To make changes to a topic, select the topic options button (···) on the right.

24. Select “Edit topic.”

25. To change the recording time from the default, select the “Recording time” dropdown list.

26. Select your preferred recording time. This limits the amount of time students will be allowed to record.

27. Select “Update topic” at the bottom to save any changes you have made.

28. That's it! Share the link or QR code with students so they can start recording their videos. To learn more, visit the “Create and post a video” guide on Flip’s website.

When facilitating VlogIt with Flip, there are a few options worth noting. 

First, decide if you want to set a time frame for when students can record their videos. In a topic’s Settings menu, you can select start and end dates to limit the recording window. 

If students try to access the Flip after the end date, they can only view responses to the topic and will not be able to record new videos. 

Leaving the start and end dates blank will leave the topic open indefid-nitely.

Second, decide if you want to allow students to comment on one another’s videos. With this feature turned on, students can leave text comments or record video comments.

Third, decide if you want to turn on moderation. With moderation turned on, you will need to approve all video submissions and comments before they are published. 

If you are new to Flip or unsure about the options, we recommend using the default settings, in which there is no start or end date, comments are turned on, and moderation is turned off.

When facilitating this Tech-Integrated Strategy for the first time, we recommend using a low-stakes prompt, such as asking students to record introduction videos about themselves. This will give them experience with using Flip and may help them feel more comfortable next time.

Depending on students’ ages and their comfort levels with using tech, you may want to have them work in small groups to complete their first VlogIt videos. 

In the Use Cases section, we’ll give you some content-specific examples of how you could use this Tech-Integrated Strategy in your classroom.

VlogIt has many uses as an instructional strategy. For example, to facilitate reflection in a STEM class, you might ask students: 

“Think about the engineering design process we used for building our glider. What part of the process did you spend the most time on? Why did that step take you more time? What were you doing?”

Flip allows users to upload images, so you could also ask students to include any pertinent design documents.

For an English language arts lesson, you could ask students to reflect on a poem or piece of literature to identify tone, imagery, or symbolism.

In a social studies lesson, you might ask students, “Was the U.S. justified in using a nuclear weapon in World War II?”

These are just a few examples, but VlogIt with Flip could be used in any content area. 

Whether you’re teaching online or in a face-to-face setting, pairing VlogIt with Flip offers many possibilities for authentic instruction and student engagement.

The VlogIt strategy is for analysis, synthesis, or reflection, and Flip is a great tool for easily recording and storing videos.

One of the best features of Flip is that students can view one another’s videos and leave comments. 

Flip has additional online resources if you want to learn more. Visit help.flip.com for more information.