Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week – Broadcasting Review Sessions

December is a just a few days away. For many of us, December is when we have either mid-term exams or end-of-semester exams. It’s at this time that we’ll be hosting review sessions for our students. You might have these review sessions during the school day or you might have them after school. If you broadcast your review sessions, you can help more students than if you only have review sessions for students who are physically in your classroom. Here are three ways that you can broadcast online review sessions.

Know Lounge

Know Lounge is a free service that I started using about ten months ago. It will let you create a live broadcast from your laptop. Know Lounge includes a whiteboard that you can draw on and share with your audience. Students can ask you question by writing them into a chat box. Additionally, you can allow students to use their webcams to ask you questions during your broadcast. Directions for using Know Lounge can be watched here.

Facebook Live

If you have a Facebook page for your class or for your school, you can use it to host a Facebook Live broadcast. Students can ask questions by typing them into the comments below or next to your video (placement depends upon how they view the broadcast). The questions are time-stamped which is helpful to students who watch the recording of the broadcast. You could also put your own notes into the comments to have them time-stamped for viewers. Last month Facebook introduced the option to share your screen during a live broadcast.

YouTube Live

YouTube Live makes it possible to broadcast from your computer’s webcam or from your phone (you’ll need the YouTube app for Android or iOS). Students can type questions while watching your broadcast and you’ll see those questions appear on your screen. YouTube Live broadcasts are automatically recorded and added to your YouTube channel for students who missed the live broadcast to view later. Click here to read about how Tom Richey used YouTube live to help more than 2,500 students prepare for the AP European History exam. Directions for how to create a YouTube Live broadcast can be found here.

Here are the week’s most popular posts from FreeTech4Teachers.com: 
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2. Three Ways to Broadcast Review Sessions for Students
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7. ReClipped – Take Notes and Share Notes on Educational Videos