We completely agree with Chris! With nearly 48 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, there's bound to be some unwanted material. But since its inception in 2005, many talented and passionate people have created and contributed some amazing work!
It's unfortunate that we overlook YouTube as a valuable classroom tool! Just as Wikipedia is something many educators despise (but use all the time!), YouTube is the same. We hear all the bad and ignore the good!
We believe the main reason YouTube is either blocked or not used in the classroom (even though students use it all the time!) is because of fear and/or ignorance. If teachers, administrators, and parents would learn a little more about the site, and a few strategies for finding the good content, they would use it in schools and homes.
To help them all along in the process of understanding YouTube, here is a short list of ways to use YouTube in the classroom:
- Find a video to use as a "class starter"
- End class with a 30 second video on something new
- End class with a short video to introduce tomorrow's lesson
- Introduce students to videos from leading universities-YouTube.edu
- Link to a specific point in a video for students to study
- Use YouTube Disco to create playlists, music students can discuss their favorite songs
- Use YouTube to search content; search Tornado for videos on how they work
- Create a class account and save your favorite videos
- Go to the sister site, TeacherTube.com to search for teacher created videos
- Teach students to create their own videos to upload to the class account!
One important piece of advice to teachers, parents, and administrators is to make sure you search ahead of time to make sure you get videos that are appropriate.
