Sunday, June 22, 2014

Vine & Instagram in the Classroom

As a high school teacher, apps like Instagram and Vine are on the majority of my students’ phones. At first, they were annoying apps that I thought were a waste of my students’ time. While I have not exactly accepted Vine and Instagram as awesome teaching tool, I am beginning to see some of the benefits of using these apps in the classroom. Firstly, for those of you who are unaware of what these apps can do, let me take a moment to explain. Instagram is an application that allows users to post and edit photos/videos, and share those photos/videos with other users through the Instagram page, Twitter, and Facebook. Vine is an application that allows users to take and post short videos (6 seconds max).  Videos directly on to Vine and can be posted to Twitter and similar sites to be shared. One thing to keep in mind is that both applications should be used with the proper setting for students’ protection. Instagram offers more settings to protect students from inappropriate content; however, I recommend establishing restrictions with your students early on when using these apps in the classroom.


Instagram

Features 

Simple to use
Can be accessed through iPhone and Android
Free to use
Connects to Twitter and Facebook
Editing available 

In the classroom

Can be used to display students’ projects, poems, and other creations

Can be used to celebrate student achievement or improvement

Students can share photos of project creation or special event

Students can post pictures of recommended books





Vine

Features 

Free to use
Simple editing process
Stop and record features
Can be accessed through iPhone and Android
Connects to Twitter and Facebook

In the classroom

Students can record brief questions
Students can record answers to questions
Students document reactions to poem/stories/book endings
Students can record brief book trailers/comments

Teacher can record comments about assignments

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