Now, this is not to say that posting videos on this site is just for the pure entertainment of things. YouTube also can be used for educational purposes. Any age could benefit in some way from the use of this tool. But just like the World Wide Web, there are some videos that just don't have good, correct information. User Beware! Unfortunately, YouTube is blocked by many school districts because for every good, sound piece of educational material on the site, there are many more that are not appropriate for school aged children. There are ways to block certain types of videos and age restrictions on some videos, but in the end, it would be up to the parents and teachers to teach correct ways to use this tool.
I could think of some great ways to use YouTube in my classroom if I could get around the site being blocked by our district. Our school has 2 video cameras to be signed out by teachers. I would assign the students, in small groups, to be “teachers” of a certain lesson. I teach junior high math, and my students really like when we get into geometry. Each group would take a geometric shape. Learn about it. Its sides, angles, how to find area and volume…etc, and they would put together a skit. This skit would be anywhere between 5-10 minutes. They could use the internet, books, even YouTube to research other videos that would be similar. I would give the groups 2 days to come up with the research and information, 2 days to create the skit, 1 day to practice the skit, and 1 day to film. The groups would present the skits in class all while being videotaped (pending parental and school permission). After the skits, part of the grade would be to upload their skits on YouTube. Can you imagine the pride that these students would have with creating something so wonderful and then giving the world the opportunity to view their creations? Amazing!
Nice description of YouTube. There are other sites where your students could post their videos, that are less likely to be blocked: VoiceThread, Vimeo, TeacherTube. Or, sites like blip.tv. Look around!
ReplyDeleteI think the most powerful part of this lesson would be what the students could do collaboratively with these videos. I agree with Craig when he says that there are other places to post their videos, but there is something about putting them on the original "YouTube." Kids seem to respond to it better. It makes it a bit more real-world, at least in the eyes of the students. I think the challenge is to convince them that the other sites are just "as cool!"
ReplyDeleteI post most of mine on mylearningtube.com. It is a little known site that is not blocked now, because no one knows about it.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I've done is use keepvid.com or zamzar.com to download the video ahaed of time and using it in class. I've also posted the video to my photobucket account and then embedded it in my edublog page. I gave credit to the original youtube poster. What I like about this is that the related videos don't show up after it plays on my page like if you directly embed from youtube.
There's a great website, www.teachertube.com. The creator of teachertube has taken all the wonderful 'educational' and interesting videos from youtube and made them teacher approved. They ensure that each video is organized by a subject area or content. It's pretty interesting and most school firewalls do not block it because it is made by and for teachers.
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