The app that lets you create Khan Academy-style videos in 60 seconds


How flipped educators can create video tutorials a la Khan in no time flat Blended learning and flipped learning just got a whole lot easier. Anyone can now create learning resources for students in little more time that is required for a normal explanation of a topic.
  • Recording solutions to math problems -- almost as quick as solving the problem on paper.
  • Highlighting important text, and explaining concepts along the way -- a breeze.
  • Sketching, labelling and explaining diagrams with audio annotation -- child’s play.
  • Providing personal feedback on a student’s work -- super simple.
  • Taking a photograph of anything - an art work, an experiment, a building - and then drawing on it while explaining concepts -- quick and easy.
The recordings can then be played on virtually any device, and are easily placed in a LMS or OLE (Online Learning Environment). Thus, almost anything that I would normally write on paper to explain to a student I now do on my computer (a pen-based Windows tablet -- in my case a Surface Pro 3). The time overhead is minimal, and students can replay the explanation whenever and wherever is needed, as many times as is needed. It makes blended and flipped learning much easier, as these types of learning resources are now easy for anyone to make. A Microsoft Garage project called Snip (not to be confused with the Snipping Tool) has been released. While still in the “preview” stage, it is stable and works well. It is quick and simple, and is effective for a large percentage of learning and teaching situations. Download and install the app. The app then sits as a thin line at the top of the screen. Tap or hover a mouse on this line and it opens to reveal a set of three tools. You can use the built in "whiteboard" (middle icon) or take a photo (icon on the right).

The initial recording choices offered by Snip.

The majority of the time I annotate a clip of my computer screen (Note that the area that can be annotated in the Snip app is fixed). Click on the icon on the left to do this, and select an area of your screen. This can be a web page, a document, a worksheet, or anything that can be displayed on your screen. When writing an explanation, such as a Math problem or some text, I use OneNote to create colored, lined “paper.”

The Snip screen with ruled lines for writing.

More News from eSchool News

Want to share a great resource? Let us know at submissions@eschoolmedia.com.

IT SchoolLeadership

Your source for IT solutions and innovations to support school-wide success.
Weekly on Wednesday.

Please enter your work email address.
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Email Newsletters:
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

eSchool News uses cookies to improve your experience. Visit our Privacy Policy for more information.