Pounce on Periscope: a Science of Cancer forum

By Rita Sayre

You poured yourself into creating an experiential lesson or forum, yet you had some students who missed it.  How can you re-create the experience for absent students?

Kim Miklusak, one of our DTCs, and I recently tried Periscope, an application that works with Twitter to create a live video feed of your lesson or presentation.  Anyone with the twitter link can join in and see your live video.  Even better, Periscope allows others to comment in real time on what is happening.  Students who are absent can participate in class in real time.

In D214, we love to create forums – common experiences for our students on a theme.  Presented in the theater, these experiences become an enrichment opportunity or a time to explore a topic in depth.  When students miss this, they often are unable to complete following activities or use the skills or knowledge as the course moves forward.  Periscope not only allows a student to participate in real time, but you can save the link for 24 hours and students can watch the lesson the following day.

Flipping your classroom might seem like a tall order in an otherwise busy school year, but Periscope is an effortless way to bring the world into your classroom or theater.

Here’s what you need to be a Periscope powerhouse:

• Have a Twitter account that you use for school purposes
• Download Periscope and link it to your Twitter
• Let your students and colleagues know – send out the link
• Video your presentation in Periscope
• Send out a reminder that the link is live for 24 hours

Kim's note: We will follow up with a blog post soon that explains the technical "How To" of using Periscope as well as some of our experiences from Periscoping Rita's event.  Stay tuned!