The Power of Periscope

Why Periscope and not just a video interview posted on a website?

I've thought about that question a lot. What is the benefit of Periscoping the interviews that I do with

Davis Drive Elementary Students

Travel Around the World

students at conferences like the NC Technology in Education Society (NCTIES) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)?  It's the power of the hashtag and amplifying the student's voice to a wider audience.
The Hashtag. Conferences are hashtag heaven! Everyone is Tweeting out their best moments and gems of wisdom and it's all captured in the Twittersphere via the hashtag.  Search #NCTIES17 or #ISTE2017 and it's all there. What better place to extend the reach of our students than to broadcast their message to everyone following the conference hashtag?
The Interview. Turns out kids love to be interviewed. Even the kids who seemed reluctant at first, were amazing and lost their reservations once we started the interview.  A little background. I treated the students as if they were guests on a live TV show. I told them that I would do a quick introduction to our audience and then ask them to introduce themselves and tell us about their project. I let them know that our audience might ask questions live on screen.  This brief preparation had the effect of freaking them out and making them super excited all at the same time.
Here's the amazing thing. Teachers commented later that they heard their students talk about things during the interview that they had never heard before. The mere fact of the interview and a live audience pulled out ideas from the students that hadn't surfaced during the practice sessions back at school or during the previous hours of talking to the adults who passed by the student showcase booth. It was the power of The Interview.
The Power of Periscope. I don't use Periscope for everything. There are times when Google Hangouts is the right tool and other times when uploading a video to Youtube is the best choice. But, for amplifying student voice to the education community following a hashtag and connecting students to that authentic audience, Periscope is a powerful tool.