Looking for a new way to present information to your students or for a new platform for students to share their projects? If so, then take a look at Blendspace.com. Meghan Carey, Differentiation Specialist at CHMS, saw Blendspace in use at a conference and knew this was a tool she wanted to use in the classroom and introduce to her students.
Blendspace is a place to compile electronic media and resources together in one lesson. It’s free and very user-friendly! Each customizable “canvas” is composed of individual spaces/boxes that allow you or your students to drag and drop videos, images, documents and websites in one place and then share your lesson or projects with others.
As a teacher you can compile a lesson for students to go through step-by-step, you can post tutorial videos on a topic, and you can link your Blendspace project to your website. You can post multiple documents and images for a specific lesson in one place. Megan Hoff, sixth grade social studies teacher at CHMS, is using Blendspace in just that way right now for the World Religions unit. Take a look https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/UpSowSL53KHD8w/
Students can use Blendspace to gather multiple resources for research and then create projects. Since all the information is stored in one place, it is easy for them to find a certain resource they used to get more information or to check some facts. According to Meghan Carey, "Using Blendspace keeps research fluid, evolving as it should. As students evaluate different resources they can discard and replace resources." The teacher can look at the canvas to see the progress of the student, to verify sources and to check for plagiarism. The canvas is a visual representation of sources. Below are two examples from 8th grade students doing research on World War II.
So, how do you begin to use Blendspace? First, you need to create an account. Don't forget, it really is FREE. Once you get into your account, Blendspace provides a 30 second tutorial on how to begin a lesson. It’s amazing and very encouraging. Then just begin! You can search with a panel on the right for videos on the web from You Tube, Teacher Tube or any web format. You can upload your own videos or other digital files and find or upload images on Flickr or Google. It’s pretty amazing.
The site says you can create a digital project in five minutes. You can! I encourage you to check it out.
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