Knowmia - The solution for the flipped classroom?

Lately teachers have been very interested in using video to supplement learning in the classroom. Some use video in the "flipped classroom" model where students learn the material via assignments (including video) before class and others find that video can be a great reinforcement after class for students to review.

Some teachers create their own videos and others use the plethora of online resources that can be found on YouTube, PBS, TED, Kahn Academy, Discovery Ed, etc.  Some send students to the websites directly, and others use Wikis, Moodles, Google Sites, etc. to post their own content or links to outside content.

All of this can be time consuming and difficult for students and teachers to navigate. That is where Knowmia comes in. Knowmia is a free service that allows teachers to create lessons centered around videos that they find anywhere on the web, within Knowmia's own growing selection of teacher created videos, created on their computer, or that they created using Knowmia's feature rich iPad app.

The iPad app allows for teachers to create lessons by annotating slides and recording their voice. There is even the option to include a face recording in the corner.  The app allows you to import images and video to use as props, draw directly on the canvas, set different backgrounds including graph paper, among other features. Included in the app is an easy to learn from tutorial for getting started. Once complete Lessons can be uploaded directly to Knowmia or exported in editable format for other teachers to work on.

Since the App is free, students can use it to create their own lessons to share with the teacher that can be played in the App. The teacher could then share select lessons to their own Knowmia account.

What's great about Knowmia is that in addition to the video, teachers can add relevant links, Textbook references, and documents. Students do not need an account to view Knowmia lessons. In the future they are planning to allow tracking of when students complete lessons, which would be a great addition to the site.

UPDATE: Knowmia has introduced the new assignment wizard in Beta. Learn all about it here. 

At that point students would have to create accounts. This would require email to sign up, which can be an issue for some districts.  Hopefully they will create another option for those districts that do not have email.

Presently to share your lessons with students you need to provide them with the link to the lesson. Like this (Click here for an example lesson). You can also embed lessons directly on your website.  If students do have an account they can favorite them and they will be stored in the "My Knowmia" section of the website.  Once students are on one of your videos, they can access all your other videos by clicking on your name. It would be nice if it were easier to search for videos by teacher.

Knowmania videos are on hosted YouTube, which means that many students, including ours at Saucon will not be able to see them in school. Hopefully we can find a way around this soon. In the meantime it is still a great website, and companion app.