Blendspace Tutorial Amanda Shaw EDET 603 Fall 2013 November 18, 2013
Blendspace is an online tool that allows you to gather all pieces of your blended lesson in one place. Using a Youtube video? Need to link to a specific article? Record audio, insert pictures, and share your information within minutes.
1.
Create account:
Within minutes, you are
working!
a. Click on “join free” or “sign up.” b. Choose teacher or student sign up. c. If you have a Google ID, you can quickly create a new account that links to your Google account –orEnter information in with your email address, name, and password. 2.
Creating a new lesson:
a. To create a new lesson, click the
button and get
started! You can also see your recently created/edited lessons under “My Lessons.” b. Place your cursor over the “Enter the Lesson title” to begin. Begin typing the topic of your lesson. It will start your search on Youtube, but you can change your search by clicking on the other icons, such as flickr, Google Drive, etc. This will allow you to search Flickr, Google, OpenEd, Educreations, Gooru, or insert webpages or documents from Google Drive/Dropbox, and others.
c. Your search term will return various videos/images/results and you can drag and drop videos into your lesson by sliding them into “Drop your Resource.” d. You can add text and quizzes by clicking the icons in each slide. -add text: You are able to do simple markup, but it also has HTML source available. I tend to use this as it the editor sometimes glitches in Chrome or Firefox. -add quiz: You can add a quiz quickly by clicking the “add quiz” icon. This allows you to create a simple quiz and you can select the right answer, which is given after a wrong answer is selected. This works best for older students.
e. Adding comments. Once you have created a slide, if you hover your mouse over the slide, you will see a small toolbar appear. By clicking the magnifying glass, you can “expand� your slide, which allows you to add comments. By becoming a premium user, you can add audio to your slide (up to 60 seconds.) You can also edit the text or quiz, and delete the slide entirely from this toolbar.
3.
Editing Settings: You can edit many settings in blendspace, including: template size, color, sharing, track views, or enable comments. You can select them by clicking on Templates, Themes, Share, or the Settings tool in the options toolbar down the right side of the screen.
4.
Sharing Sharing is very simple on blendspace. You click “Share” at the top of the screen and then it will allow you to view the link, embed the link, or post via several social media accounts.
5.
Searching for Others’ Lessons.
On blendspace, you
can also search for lessons that other teachers have made.
a. Click the blendspace logo at the top, or click the home button to search for others. b. On the home screen, click “Gallery” and begin your search by subject. 6.
Create student slideshows. a. When first creating an account, select student instead of teacher. It will ask for a class code, but it is optional. Students then can use a free account. b. You can create a class code by selecting “Classes” on the Home Menu to the left side on the Home screen.
7.
Premium Settings Vs. Free:
By clicking on your name (or username) at the top, you can see “Upgrade”, “Profile”, “Account” and “Sign Off.” When you click upgrade, the retail price for the full version of blendspace is $8/month billed annually. For as long as I have had my account, they have a “limited time” offer of $4/month billed annually. This allows you to create audio recordings of up to 60 seconds on each slide, collaborate on lessons with other account holders, and priority help (when you have an issue, you are sent to the “beginning of the line” in the queue. They also have a 7 day free trial, although it does require a credit card because you will be billed after the 7th day.