I recently purchased a device called ‘Swivl’ for school and I thought I would take the time to write a quick post about it.
‘Swivl’ is a used to film lessons or other activities for use with the flipped classroom or lesson observations.
The device sits on a tripod and has a slot for you to put your iPhone or iPod Touch into it. You can then put the microphone/sensor around your neck and the device will swivel round and follow you as you walk around the classroom. It pretty cool and staff and students were impressed with the tech.
It is a great device that is very useful if you want to film your lessons, especially if you have a teacher that walks around a lot, like me. It also has a free App that that optimises the experience.
As you will see from the video below, you should check the white balance as you can hardly see what is on the whiteboard. I should have really had a look before I started filming, leaving the classroom light on would have helped. It is also fairly pricey at about £175. I got mine from: http://www.techinvasion.co.uk/
There is another issue too. If you are walking around the camera follows you, which is fine. However, I make lots of small movements so the camera can be a little jerky. Probably something just to be mindful of when you are using it I suppose. Update: A representative of Techinvasion read this post and kindly emailed me with some guidance. He let me know that there is a ‘Sport Mode’ which is there for just this reason.
Overall, I think it is really good. It is very easy to set up and will certainly improve the filming and sharing the lessons.
Have a look at the video and make up your own mind. Sorry about the rubbish commentary. It has been a long day. 🙂