Greetings fellow educators! Welcome back to the Tech Snack Café! I apoligize that it has been relatively quiet on my end. It's been a hectic school week, but alas I am back and ready to review our latest tech snacks! I have an exctiing line up of new upcoming snacks for us to dive into....
So without further delay...today's tech snack can be found at the following url: https://www.beasmartercookie.com/
What is it?
Beasmartercookie is a web-based video hosting site. Unlike public video hosting sites like youtube and vimeo, this site allows teachers to record their lessons for review and critique by only sharing their videos with a select group of people. This is not a public site that anyone can type in any item in the search box and get multiple video hits. In other words, beasmartercook is an online video coaching and professional development platform for teachers. It is the standard classroom observation with a digital twist!
So how does it work?
The idea behind beasmartercookie is simple: provide teachers and administrators an easy way to provide feedback and coaching through the use of recorded classroom sessions. To begin using beasmartercookie, you first have to create a free account. Once you create an account, you will be taken to the home interface screen which looks like the screen below:
Beasmartercookie offers educators free and paid services. With a free account, you can upload unlimited videos that are ten minutes or less in length. You can share the video with as many people as you wish, and you can provide and receive timestamp feedback. With a paid account, you can upload unlimited videos that are 60 minutes or less to be reviewed. You can share your video with as many people as you choose, and receive feedback on the videos. With a paid account, you also get more coaching options like sharing your personal reflection with your mentors and participating in an ongoing discussion about the contents of your lesson.
What are the benefits of using this tool?
One of the main benefits of using this tool is the reallocating of your time. Time is one of the biggest challenges that comes with teaching. With beasmartercookie, teachers and administrators can observe the same classroom lesson around their individual schedules, rather than trying to find a set time where everyone would be able to physically be in the classroom to observe the lesson. The 24 hour availability of the videos, give teachers a lot of freedom and therefore, makes the observation process easier because it lends itself to more deeper, "meater" reflections and growth opportunities.