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If you're looking for innovative ways to use free and user friendly digital tools to help students acquire vocabulary, please check out my session, Digital Tools for Differentiating Vocabulary Instruction at the K12OnlineConference. While you're there you are sure to discover more terrific 20 minute sessions, available for viewing at your convenience.


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TeachEm is a free and user friendly digital tool that allows users to capture YouTube content, organize it, and add time stamped flashcards to guide the learning. It's simple, smart and efficient which makes it a good tool for busy teachers interested in implementing a Flipped Classroom instructional model.

Teachers can sign up for a free account with an email address and create a school. The school is not meant to be the school that employs you, it is supposed to be "The School of You".  Once you've created your school, you can create classes of organized YouTube videos fairly easily.

To create a class just copy and paste links from your own collection of pre-selected YouTube videos or use the built in search feature to find and preview videos without leaving the TeachEm site. Add timestamped flashcards to associate text with specific parts of a video. Create public classes to share with the world, or create private classes that can even include videos that are not publicly available on YouTube. The TeachEm site hosts a very nice set of TeachEm FAQs, created with their own tool, to help users learn to use it.



When students participate in a TeachEm class they simply click on a flashcard and the timestamped video will jump to the associated spot.  They can flip the flashcards for more information or to get the answers to questions. As  they watch the videos and respond to the prompts on the flashcards, they can also type their own SmartNotes.

The set of Flashcards and SmartNotes can be emailed as live links which open to specific parts of the videos when clicked. Although I didn't find any features for embedding a class, you could copy and paste the set of live links into your own online learning platform or website for quick and easy student access.

Uses in the Classroom:

• Use TeachEm to create levels of differentiated classes on specific topics to provide students with access to content to meet their instructional needs.
• Design student-driven learning activities to deliver content with TeachEm, then require students to create something original based on the learning. 
• Create your own instructional videos and use them in place of traditional lectures to maximize instructional time and give students a chance to use the pause and rewind buttons to take the learning at their own pace.

Technology can be a powerful tool to help us meet the Common Core Standards and move our students forward to prepare them for success in school and beyond. In general, the Common Core calls for the seamless integration of technology into the curriculum. There are also specific Common Core standards dedicated to using technology. The Speaking and Listening strand across all grade levels asks students to create presentations that are enhanced by a spiraling complexity of multimedia components.



I am excited and nervous about this standard. My excitement stems from a strong believe that students can construct deep knowledge about a topic as they engage in building a multimedia project. If used efficiently, a well designed student-driven learning experience can take the place of traditional methods of teaching content.

My nervousness stems from the possibility that some teachers might simply add a multimedia enriched project to the end of their unit as a culminating activity and then spend large amounts of class time giving each student an opportunity to present to a passive audience of their peers. In this case, there will be loss of instructional time, loads of frustration, and most likely lack of enthusiasm from students as technology is used to make them do more. Effective instructional technology integration calls for using technology as a tool for learning, not as an add on.

To truly make a difference, there needs to be an adjustment in instructional practices. My suggestion is for teachers to abandon the role of "Content Deliverer" and take an approach in which they become a "Facilitator of Learning". 

Tips for designing an efficient and effective technology powered multimedia project:

• Start with an Essential Question to drive the learning. Make sure the answers to the questions are complex and can't be answered with a copy and paste.
• Provide students with multimedia platforms that allow them to take flexible learning paths to meet their unique learning styles.
• Allow students to work in collaborative groups to prompt discussion and decision-making.
• Serve as a Facilitator of Learning. Spend instructional time interacting with students as you informally assess, reteach and challenge them on the spot.
• Provide students with built in tech support so you can focus on the content, not the technology.
• Design sharing opportunities that are engaging and non-traditional. Return to the Essential Question and assign a related task for accountability. Provide students with access to a portable learning device and let them learn and explore instead of watch and daydream.
• Most important tip: Start by creating your own sample to fully understand the task you are asking students to engage in.

This image was created with ThingLink