Loom – A Video Tool Worth Using

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If you are anything like me, you’ve tried many different tools to capture videos over the last 9 months. Whether it’s Explain Everything on my ipad, or Screencastify as a Google Chrome Add-on, I’ve played with many different tools.  The problem is I didn’t find one that fully satisfied all of the needs that exist in distance learning. Explain Everything made more beautiful videos and I was familiar with the app because I had used it a couple years in my classroom, but it took FOREVER to upload a video. Screencastify was pretty quick when I was giving instructions, but it had a time limit so I couldn’t use it for teaching videos.

This is where LOOM comes in.

Here’s why I use it:

  • Unlimited videos and up to 45 minutes in length
  • Integration with email
  • Quick processing times
  • Notifications when it’s been watched
  • You can also trim the video if you want to cut off a piece
  • I’m sure there’s more, but I’m new too.

Here are some of my favorite things:

In the last week of school, last spring, I discovered the ability to create a video and put it right in an email immediately.  Loom, when installed as a Google Chrome extension, makes this possible.  See this for an overview:

This fall, I made progress reports  and have made countless instructions for an individual student and I KNOW when they watch it. (You get an email after your first view, so if it’s a video for one individual, you know they’ve seen it. **I’m sure you can turn off the email notification if emails are weighing you down**)

Whenever students email me questions, or I see they got a low score on something, I can make a personal video to send to just them.  I use a Jamboard file and write on my iPad, while I have the same file open on my computer browser.  Loom captures the screen on my computer. Here’s an example:

This the same way I make my instructional videos now.  Jamboard isn’t as robust as explain everything, but it is much faster, and, unfortunately, I don’t have time to make everything look nice this year.  It just has to work.

And remember, all these videos can be quickly inserted into an email.  There’s also embed code for you to put it in your LMS like Canvas.

Another thing I discovered just this week was this “Call to Action” option.  I wanted to create a password to inspire students to watch the weekly overview videos.  We have a scavenger hunt all lined up.  The Call to Action appears on the video and could be a great way to draw students attention to something as they watch the video. Check it out here:

 

I know we are heavy on new tools over the last 9 months, but I hope you’ll find this one worth using.  Just be sure to sign up for the unlimited, free, educator account here: https://www.loom.com/education and let me know how it goes for you!

–  Jessica Rice
MCTM Communications Editor