Reflect Privately to Share Globally

This will be my 6th year using Google Sites for student portfolios. A lot has changed along the way and I’m excited to iterate again with a feature that I feel has always been lacking in my portfolio process. That piece is reflection. Whether it be a portfolio to document growth or a portfolio to showcase the best work, the ability to reflect is essential. But, the ability to provide multiple forms of reflection has been a bit cumbersome.
In all the time I have been using Google Sites, typed text responses to prompts has been the form that reflection has taken. After learning more about the amazing things educators are doing with Flipgrid, I have realized that not only is it a tool that can be used for sharing ideas, it is a great tool for video reflection. These video reflections can be kept private between the student and teacher. What I did not realize was how these videos created by students can easily be added to their Google Sites portfolio by the student.

So what is the process required?
Many teachers create grids for individual students. This way it is easy for them to have their reflections all stored in a single grid with different topics. But with over 120 students a year, the process of creating a grid for each student is a bit much. So each reflection students are asked to do is a topic in my physics class grid. The key keeping these videos private even though all students are working in the same grid is making a topic moderated.
The first step to making a private reflection space is creating a moderated topic in the edit settings. When a topic is unmoderated, any video shared can be seen by all viewers of the grid. Enabling moderation makes the shared videos only viewable to the creator of the video (student) and the creator(s) of the grid (teacher). This allows students to speak more candidly in their reflection and not worry too much about perfection in their reflection.
Videos that have been shared in a moderated topic can be viewed by the student that created it in their My Flipgrid page at my.flipgrid.com. They can also see all of the other videos they have shared here as well. At my.fligrid.com students can share their videos in a variety of different modes to the public by clicking the Share icon.

If students copy the link, the can then insert it into a Google Site as a playable video or a thumbnail linking to the video.

This is a simple way to allow students a mode of reflection beyond typing. I really love that students can go back to their private videos in my.flipgrid.com and still share them via a portfolio after the fact. They can reflect privately and then share their insights and journey globally.

These reflection videos could be placed in sequence on a single web page to provide snapshots in time for many things like progress towards a goal or steps in a long term project. I am always excited to give students another path to express themselves with the least obstacles. For some that path may be typing out their responses. But for others, the ability to speak out loud may help overcome the barriers to deeper reflection. With the new features in the Flipgrid camera, students don’t need to be self conscious about seeing themselves on screen while talking. I’ve had students use the pixel filter or add an emoji sticker to relieve some of that potential stress or anxiety.

If you’d like to learn more about the features in the new Flipgrid Camera, please check out the Creator’s Guide to the Flipgrid Camera & Shorts at bit.ly/flipgridcamera.