As the future of education remains as uncertain as ever, it's important that we, as educators, prepare to support our students as effectively as possible. The move to remote followed by hybrid learning models has provided many challenges for educators and students alike such as lack of devices, connectivity issues and a lack of confidence with digital tools. 
Live online teaching not only presents many challenges as mentioned but it can also not be the most effective way to deliver content. By finding effective ways to deliver content asynchronously, it can free up the time during those live online sessions to focus on what really matters: mental wellbeing and developing Social Emotional Learning skills.
 In many cases, including my own, live online teaching has not been possible. The key question is how do you maintain those human connections when you are not able to connect either in person or online at the same time? Being a parent myself, I have seen first hand the impact it has had on my 6 year old who has not seen her teacher in well over 4 months and only interacted through text communication.
A digital tool that can make such a difference in these uncertain times is Flipgrid. Flpgrid is a "free video discussion platform from Microsoft enabling educators see and hear from every student in class and foster a fun and supportive social learning environment." Flipgrid enables educators to post discussion prompts and students respond with short videos anywhere. The beauty of Flipgrid is that at it's very core is the mission to create a digital tool that is inclusive and accessible to all
I first discovered Flipgrid just after it was acquired by Microsoft in 2018 and I have to admit I was a bit unsure of how I would use it at first. I just assumed it would be a "Snapchat for Education" and to get any sort of use out of it would require ultra-confident students that were comfortable in front of the camera and vlogging all the time. Little did I know that how important Flipgrid would become to my teaching to the point now where I can't imagine being without it.

Items