Coveritlive - a great tool in the Classroom!

I have to start by thanking +David Mitchell (@deputymitchell,) @Cherise_Duxbury and @HGJohn for their ideas and inspiration with this fantastic tool.

Coveritlive is a web based live blogging tool that can be embedded into your school blog. It can be used in so many different ways in the classroom and as a whole school.

You can sign up for a free account and then upgrade to an education account which gives you all the features for free. I first came across Coveritlive after seeing it used with @Deputymitchell and @PieCorbett. The idea that children can have a live writing session with a real author and have some of their ideas commented on and be given feedback immediately. You could see instantly the immediate impact it had on the children and their writing and the quality coming through.

For some examples of session from David and Pie - Click here and here.

I have tried some live writing with a number of classes all to a great reception from the children and some quality writing. Having the opportunity to feedback immediately to children and them see how they can improve their writing within the lesson is a great tool to have. I have currently only ran the sessions by myself so to do it with a special guest or even another class would be something really special. Here is an example of a live writing session I have completed with a Year 6 class:




Another example of how we have used Coveritlive was part of a recent eSafety week with thanks to @HGJohn for the idea. We duped a Year 5 class to believe they were having a online chat with a special guest - a young girl from America. We wanted to test how much information the children would share but also to shock them into realising that people online are not always who they say they are. I acted as the young girl Maddie and chatted with the class. When I revealed to the class that they were actually speaking to me, the penny really dropped. They were shocked but quickly realised the lesson behind the activity. Here is the session:



Coveritlive also provides an iPhone app that allows you to run a session straight from your phone. This was perfect for broadcasting our school sports day. For parents who couldn't be at the event or family members who live further away, they could enjoy the sports day live as it happened. The app allows you to add text, pictures, audio and video recordings meaning every race was filmed and added to the session for all to enjoy. Here is the session:



There are plenty of other ways this can be used in the classroom. A teacher or TA could pretend to be a book character, famous historical figure or celebrity for children to interview as a coveritlive session. An interview with Father Christmas perhaps? I am sure there is a a wealth of professionals on twitter who would love a Q&A session with an enthusiastic class! Either way, this tool is an absolute must for the classroom.

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