| YouTube and TeacherTube | | Print | |
| Tuesday, 29 May 2007 11:19 | ||||
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An overview of YouTube (http://youtube.com) and an introduction to TeacherTube (http://teachertube.com) YouTube. I wanted to write about a resource Eric sent me recently, but thought I really needed to cover YouTube first. YouTube is a website that lets you view millions of video clips using a web browser for free. YouTube was founded wayyyyyyyy back in 2005. Last year it was bought by Google for 1.65 billion in Google stock (not a typo “B”). Originally, I found YouTube to be a collection of bad home videos. However, I am finding more and more legitimate uses for the resource and can see SOME of the content posted as being relevant in the classroom. For example, my family and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner one night, and on the place mat there was a quick blip about the first Pizza Hut commercial. We went home and I was able to find and show my children the commercial at YouTube. ( http://tinyurl.com/yp2mwg). It lead us to explore other classic commercials both ones I had never seen and ones I remembered from my childhood. I have also watched lectures on YouTube. Keynote speakers and conference presenters have had their presentations posted online. For example, I am interested in the One Laptop Per Child program. The Chairman of the program Nicholas Negroponte spoke at the NECC conference in San Diego, CA last year. I was able to watch his keynote address on my lunch break one day. http://tinyurl.com/yuqek7 The popularity of YouTube is not lost on the political candidates either. Search for your favorite (or not so favorite) candidate on YouTube, and chances are you will find a video that gives them the chance to outline their agenda. It’s a powerful tool, but unfortunately there are some videos that do not belong in a classroom. If your school is not blocking YouTube, I highly encourage direction and supervision when using this resource in the classroom. If your school is blocking YouTube and you want to use legitimate resources in your classroom you have two options. One is to download the video you need for your lecture at home and bring it in (I will blog on how to do that in the future). The other would be to use your Bess override if your district provides them. Read my earlier blog entry about Bess for more specific information. What I originally wanted to write about though was a tool Eric sent my way called TeacherTube. http://teachertube.com It’s like YouTube with user contributed videos, but the videos are all geared around education. A quick search and I found videos ranging from how to tell time, to how to use a specific piece of software. Again there is a chance that teachertube may have videos inappropriate for K12 posted, but they seem committed to keeping the content relevant and appropriate for schools. Anyone posting YouTube videos from your classroom? I’d love to see them. Send me your links. Scott
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 29 May 2007 11:24 ) | ||||