Monday, September 29, 2008

You Tube, Not Utube, and NOT Just for Watching Stupid Pet Tricks Videos.....

Some things that I have learned about Video sharing sites:
1. Not JUST for entertainment purposes.
2. Although students knew about this site before I did, they still could use lessons on copyright infringement, You Tube netiquette, and what posting videos does for their online portfolio.
3. Highly addictive.
4. Great source for instructional videos for free pro-d!
5. Great source for videos to supplement educational resources.
6. Another tool that can help reach out to parents/care providers.
7. Need an attention grabber for a unit or lesson? There is probably a video for it. Check out this plagiarism video for a lesson opener on academic honesty.

What You Tube and Teacher Tube can do for the classroom:

1. Teaching a difficult concept in Math? Create an online tutorial using Teacher Tube so that parents can follow along with the children to help them with their homework.
2. Not enough Library admin. time to go to each classroom and deliver book talks? Create a video that students can access online to see what is new in their library.
3. According to Wikipedia, there is are 65,000 videos posted everyday. With this many videos in a searchable database, teachers are sure to find videos that would tie in with their curriculum content. For example, I was teaching a unit on Pow Wow dancing and found many videos that I could use in the classroom.
4. Expand the way that students express their learning. Have the students trade podcasts with another classroom across the city or the WORLD! Students can share their projects online, create tutorials for other classrooms, and see what other students their age are doing in their classrooms.

1 comment:

Joanne said...

Thanks, April, for the reminder that YouTube is more than watching pet trick videos (although those are fun, too!). As you point out there are some excellent tools out there for teachers, parents, and students--sometimes the trick is just finding it (without spending too much time!).