TMST: My Recap of RecapThat

Once upon a time it was summer.  I enjoyed long days of relaxing by the pool. I stayed up late and binge-watched a ton of Netflix. Back in those lazy days, I excitedly saved a ton of things from my Twitter feed, thinking I had plenty of time to explore and tell our educators all about them later.  

And then, well, the school year happened.

As I slowly dig myself out from under the first quarter of the school year, I did something I very rarely remember to do.  I circled back.


And so...I give you...my Recap of RecapThat, a great video reflection resource that almost went forgotten in my bookmarks.  

RecapThat in Action

Image used with permission from RecapThat

RecapThat is a video reflection curation tool.  As an educator, I set up an account and class on the web version of RecapThat.  Kids are able to join the class by email address or class code.  (I chose to use the class code - so easy).   Recap lets you record and/or write a prompt question(s) to "assign" to the learners. When ready to use in class, learners access the prompts assigned to them through the RecapThat App and record video reflections that are submitted back to the educator account. 

One secret of being a DLC - it is not as much fun to test things by yourself.  So I launched a "Pryor Takeover" of my friend, Delaney Allison's class. The 3rd graders were engaged and thoughtful as they wrote a quick post it note plan of what their 30 second video would say. They joined the class using our class code, listened to my video instruction of the prompt and were OFF to record their own!

Planning is key!

As learners submitted their responses, I could monitor their submissions through the web version in my educator account.  This was helpful for pacing the lesson and to monitor the quality of what they sent.  If needed, Ms. Allison and I would have been able to leave them comments on their submissions too!

Engaged 3rd graders = success!

The Verdict

First of all, anything that lets our learners pause to reflect and is simple enough for K-5 kids to use gets a star in my book.  That being said, here are my top 3 things I enjoyed about this experience:

• It was easy for the learners to do independently after a quick mini - lesson from me and their "Jr." teacher, Luke.  We used Reflector (Apple TV would work too) and showed his work through the process for 5 minutes before asking the kids to work on their own contributions.

Some data from the "Pryor Takeover"

• At the end of each video submission, learners are asked to do a quick formative self check for understanding.  They tap a thumbs up, a thumb held horizontally or one that is thumbs down to indicate if they "get it" or not.  This data can be so helpful in plotting the next steps of an experience or unit.

• Not only can you as the educator view all of the videos submitted by your class, but RecapThat compiles a Daily Review Reel for each assignment.  This showcase video randomly pulls several videos that have been submitted and can be shared with the class, parents or via social media.

RecapThat would be great for quick end of the day or lesson reflections, as a way for learners to verbally process their learning or as a tool for gathering reflection through a CBL unit.  

How could you see using RecapThat to give your learners more of a voice in the classroom?  Let me know in the comments!