Over the summer, Swivl announced they were going to release the ability to record from 2 cameras at once for free in their Swivl app.  Earlier in the year they updated their app to allow you to record from up to 5 devices at once to get a single video that allows you to see and hear from 5 different viewpoints in one setting.  This was a great tool for teachers as they wanted to record parts of the classroom in order to better see/hear what students were doing/saying or if they wanted to just get a better picture in order to reflect on their own teaching.

As part of their update, you are now even able to use a Chromebook or any laptop that has a browser and webcam, in order to record from a second perspective.  You still need to be running the Swivl app on an iOS device as your primary recording device but this allows many teachers who have other devices in their classroom already, to be able to do the multi-camera setup without having to find another iPad.

All you need to do is start the Swivl app on your iPad and click the Dual-Camera (you will see Multi-Camera if you have a pro account) button while going to cloud.swivl.com/plus on your other device. You will get a code to sync up the other device and you are ready to record.  The recordings will be synced up in the Swivl Cloud and you will be able to view them, even turning audio on and off for each feed, in the cloud.

I have written and talked about the power of video in the classroom, and for teacher reflection, many times but being able to record from two cameras at once will help many teachers get a better understanding of the teaching and learning going on in their classrooms.  There are too many times that we have a lot going on in the classroom and can’t observe everything that is going on.  By having multiple cameras recording, we will be able to see more of what is happening and better understand how well students are learning.  We can even have multiple groups being recorded so we can go back later in order to see how well they were working together in order to figure out what areas we need to teach in order for them to be better collaborators.  There are a lot of ways that having a video of the learning in the classroom can help a teacher and you are only limited by your mindset.

View the video below to get started.